Unknown Virus Disrupts World’s Second Largest Liquefied Natural Gas Company

Another mysterious virus hits the Middle East. This time, the victim is RasGas – a Qatar-based company that’s considered to be the second largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer in the world, after Qatargas.

According to Arabian Oil and Gas, the virus disrupted the company’s offices, forcing them to shut down their systems, including the public-facing website rasgas.com.

 The organization’s representatives state that cargo deliveries and operations in Ras Laffan Industrial City haven’t been impacted by the incident.

This is the second time this month when such a firm becomes the target of hackers. Earlier in August, multiple hacktivist groups took credit for disrupting the operations of Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest oil company.

At the time, experts found that the attack – which affected some 30,000 computers – might have involved a piece of malware known as Shamoon. The malware covers its tracks by overwriting the stolen files and by completely wiping the infected device’s master boot record.

Saudi Aramco admitted that its systems have been infected with a virus, but a statement released a few days ago reveals the fact that the organization has addressed the problem.

“We addressed the threat immediately, and our precautionary procedures, which have been in place to counter such threats, and our multiple protective systems, have helped to mitigate these deplorable cyber threats from spiraling,” stated Khalid A. Al-Falih, president of Saudi Aramco.

On the other hand, one of the hacker crews which took credit for the attack, claims to have hit the company once again on August 25. On this occasion they leaked the details of core, backup and middle routers.

Similar to Saudi Aramco, RasGas is expected to publish a statement after its systems will be back online. For now, rasgas.com is still unavailable to visitors.

Categories: Vulnerability