Critical components of Iran's petroleum infrastructure have sustained a
major computer-based strike, prompting the country to establish an
emergency response task force and on Sunday to cut off from global
networks its primary facility for shipping the material overseas, Agence
France-Presse quoted Iranian media as saying on Monday .
The elimination of online communications with the Kharg Island facility "has not caused any problem" for the output of Iranian petroleum and its transfer to other countries, Iran's Mehr News Agency said in an unsubstantiated report. The site handles nine-tenths of such deliveries from the nation, the National Iranian Oil Terminals Company stated.
The Iranian Oil Ministry, National Iranian Oil and a number of associated institutions lost their Internet presence for a period of hours as a result of the strike, according to Mehr News and additional Iranian news organizations. The ministry's website was operating as of Monday; the petroleum company's online presence was still disabled.
A "cyber crisis committee" organized by the Oil Ministry would respond to the "cyber attack," a ministry source involved in domestic crisis response said in remarks reported by Mehr News.
Tehran's capacity to deal with the cyber strike offered a trial by fire of the protection capabilities established in the wake of the 2010 Stuxnet worm assault on the nation's nuclear sector, according to AFP .
Oil Ministry security planner Hamdollah Mohamadnejad reportedly said the group was seeking to identify the strike as either an attack from outside the country or an act of domestic sabotage, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Iran detected the strike on ministry systems last month, but the offensive's toll peaked at the beginning of this week, an official told the Iranian Students' News Agency (Faucon/Fassihi, Wall Street Journal, April 23).
Oil Ministry spokesman Alireza Nikzad said the Sunday strike involved a "virus" that "attempted to delete data on Oil Ministry servers," Iran's Fars News Agency reported. A second Iranian media outlet referred to the malware as "Viper," according to the Christian Science Monitor.
"This cyber attack has not damaged the main data of the Oil Ministry and the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) since the general servers are separate from the main servers; even their cables are not linked to each other and are not linked to Internet service," Nikzad said in remarks carried by Iranian news organizations. "We have a backup from all our main or secondary data, and there is no problem in this regard" (Mark Clayton, Christian Science Monitor, April 23).
Nikzad said most ministry electronics had restarted routine activities as of late Tuesday, the nation's Petroenergy Information Network reported (Petroenergy Information Network, April 24)
One observer said the malware was apparently not "designed to attack the industrial control systems that operate Iran's oil-pumping operations," the Monitor reported.
"If it had been, the attackers could have done serious damage to those plants. By taking over servers and wiping the data so they can't function, that's only a temporary disruption -- possibly one designed mainly to send a message like, 'We are in your oil export system, so you better start negotiating,'" said John Bumgarner, research director for the independent U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit think tank (Clayton, Christian Science Monitor).
Iranian diplomats on April 14 joined representatives from six major governments for discussions aimed at resolving concerns over the Middle Eastern nation's nuclear program, an effort Washington and other Western capitals believe is geared toward establishing a nuclear-weapon capability. Iran, which maintains its atomic activities are strictly peaceful, is expected to meet again with world powers China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States on May 23 in Baghdad.
European Union personnel on Saturday conferred with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari on the planned meeting, Mehr News reported.
The EU and Iraqi participants characterized the exchange as "positive." The critical nature of next month's meeting was a point stressed by the top Iraqi diplomat as well as some of the involved EU diplomats, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in provided comments reported by Sot al-Iraq.
“During the meeting, both sides exchanged views on the selection of the most suitable routes and security and technical arrangements in regard to the talks and highlighted the importance of contacts (between Iraqi and) EU representatives in this regard,” the released remarks state (Mehr News Agency, April 23).
The result of the planned meeting is contingent on "a correct assessment by the West of Iran's national, regional and international capability," AFP quoted senior Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili as telling Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday.
Meeting participants must acknowledge Iran's "consistent determination to consolidate and upgrade its capabilities," Jalili said in comments reported by the Iranian Students' News Agency.
The official's statement might refer to a possible call for Western governments to accede to the continuation of critical Iranian atomic activities, according to AFP (Agence France-Presse II/Spacedaily.com, April 23).
Potential further economic penalties against Iran would "affect the spirit" of the planned discussion in Baghdad, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Tuesday.
Iran has been hit with four rounds of U.N. Security Council economic penalties and a host of unilateral sanctions from the United States and other governments. The European Union in July is due to assume an embargo on Iranian petroleum
Tehran would look on the adoption of any further punitive moves as a "wrong step" and the potential elimination of existing penalties as a "positive step" in advance of next month's meeting, the Xinhua News Agency quoted Mehmanparast as saying.
"The Western sanctions will not affect the will of our nation and (on the contrary) will strengthen our determination to move towards our goals," the official added (Xinhua News Agency, April 24).
"We are ready for closer cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to remove all ambiguities surrounding our peaceful nuclear programs," Mehmanparast said in remarks reported by Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
Iran would be prepared to open "on a voluntary basis" its Parchin armed forces installation to monitors with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, he said. Tehran in March tentatively offered to permit the agency to inspect the base after denying access to high-level IAEA teams that made two visits to the country this year.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog has noted concerns that the Parchin site has been used for research activities with potential nuclear-weapon applications (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 24).
Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Monday played down Israel's hints of a potential strike on Iran as "empty words [and] bluffing," the Associated Press reported (Associated Press I/CBS News, April 23).
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, though, on Monday said his government is not "playing games," the Times of Israel reported.
“These are genuine, serious matters. Underpinning all the preparations and the activities (being undertaken by the Israeli army), there has to be a willingness to tackle the real challenge if it comes,” Barak said. “This is not theoretical. This is not (preparation) for the sake of it.”
"We really have to be ready for every kind of test. I don’t want to elaborate as regards our capabilities, but when we speak to our friends about not taking any options off the table, we mean what we say,” the minister said (Raphael Ahren, Times of Israel, April 24).
Iran is interested in collaborating on atomic matters with Kazakhstan, Interfax on Monday quoted an Iranian diplomat as saying.
"It is Iran's goal to ensure nuclear weapons nonproliferation and to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Araqchi said. "Iran has good experience in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Kazakhstan is experienced in the nuclear weapons nonproliferation sphere. This is a very good track for bilateral cooperation" (Interfax, April 23).
Meanwhile, the independent Middle East Media Research Institute in a report last week disputed assertions that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had issued a religious edict against the assembly, storage or employment of nuclear weapons.
"No such fatwa ever existed or was every published," according to the report (Middle East Media Research Institute release, April 19).
Elsewhere, Iran's assertion that it has obtained sensitive information from a downed U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle was received skeptically on Monday by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, AP reported .
"Based on my experience ... I would seriously question their ability to do what they say they have done," Panetta said without elaboratin.
http://www.nti.org/gsn/
The elimination of online communications with the Kharg Island facility "has not caused any problem" for the output of Iranian petroleum and its transfer to other countries, Iran's Mehr News Agency said in an unsubstantiated report. The site handles nine-tenths of such deliveries from the nation, the National Iranian Oil Terminals Company stated.
The Iranian Oil Ministry, National Iranian Oil and a number of associated institutions lost their Internet presence for a period of hours as a result of the strike, according to Mehr News and additional Iranian news organizations. The ministry's website was operating as of Monday; the petroleum company's online presence was still disabled.
A "cyber crisis committee" organized by the Oil Ministry would respond to the "cyber attack," a ministry source involved in domestic crisis response said in remarks reported by Mehr News.
Tehran's capacity to deal with the cyber strike offered a trial by fire of the protection capabilities established in the wake of the 2010 Stuxnet worm assault on the nation's nuclear sector, according to AFP .
Oil Ministry security planner Hamdollah Mohamadnejad reportedly said the group was seeking to identify the strike as either an attack from outside the country or an act of domestic sabotage, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Iran detected the strike on ministry systems last month, but the offensive's toll peaked at the beginning of this week, an official told the Iranian Students' News Agency (Faucon/Fassihi, Wall Street Journal, April 23).
Oil Ministry spokesman Alireza Nikzad said the Sunday strike involved a "virus" that "attempted to delete data on Oil Ministry servers," Iran's Fars News Agency reported. A second Iranian media outlet referred to the malware as "Viper," according to the Christian Science Monitor.
"This cyber attack has not damaged the main data of the Oil Ministry and the National Iranian Oil Co. (NIOC) since the general servers are separate from the main servers; even their cables are not linked to each other and are not linked to Internet service," Nikzad said in remarks carried by Iranian news organizations. "We have a backup from all our main or secondary data, and there is no problem in this regard" (Mark Clayton, Christian Science Monitor, April 23).
Nikzad said most ministry electronics had restarted routine activities as of late Tuesday, the nation's Petroenergy Information Network reported (Petroenergy Information Network, April 24)
One observer said the malware was apparently not "designed to attack the industrial control systems that operate Iran's oil-pumping operations," the Monitor reported.
"If it had been, the attackers could have done serious damage to those plants. By taking over servers and wiping the data so they can't function, that's only a temporary disruption -- possibly one designed mainly to send a message like, 'We are in your oil export system, so you better start negotiating,'" said John Bumgarner, research director for the independent U.S. Cyber Consequences Unit think tank (Clayton, Christian Science Monitor).
Iranian diplomats on April 14 joined representatives from six major governments for discussions aimed at resolving concerns over the Middle Eastern nation's nuclear program, an effort Washington and other Western capitals believe is geared toward establishing a nuclear-weapon capability. Iran, which maintains its atomic activities are strictly peaceful, is expected to meet again with world powers China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States on May 23 in Baghdad.
European Union personnel on Saturday conferred with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari on the planned meeting, Mehr News reported.
The EU and Iraqi participants characterized the exchange as "positive." The critical nature of next month's meeting was a point stressed by the top Iraqi diplomat as well as some of the involved EU diplomats, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said in provided comments reported by Sot al-Iraq.
“During the meeting, both sides exchanged views on the selection of the most suitable routes and security and technical arrangements in regard to the talks and highlighted the importance of contacts (between Iraqi and) EU representatives in this regard,” the released remarks state (Mehr News Agency, April 23).
The result of the planned meeting is contingent on "a correct assessment by the West of Iran's national, regional and international capability," AFP quoted senior Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili as telling Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday.
Meeting participants must acknowledge Iran's "consistent determination to consolidate and upgrade its capabilities," Jalili said in comments reported by the Iranian Students' News Agency.
The official's statement might refer to a possible call for Western governments to accede to the continuation of critical Iranian atomic activities, according to AFP (Agence France-Presse II/Spacedaily.com, April 23).
Potential further economic penalties against Iran would "affect the spirit" of the planned discussion in Baghdad, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said on Tuesday.
Iran has been hit with four rounds of U.N. Security Council economic penalties and a host of unilateral sanctions from the United States and other governments. The European Union in July is due to assume an embargo on Iranian petroleum
Tehran would look on the adoption of any further punitive moves as a "wrong step" and the potential elimination of existing penalties as a "positive step" in advance of next month's meeting, the Xinhua News Agency quoted Mehmanparast as saying.
"The Western sanctions will not affect the will of our nation and (on the contrary) will strengthen our determination to move towards our goals," the official added (Xinhua News Agency, April 24).
"We are ready for closer cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to remove all ambiguities surrounding our peaceful nuclear programs," Mehmanparast said in remarks reported by Deutsche Presse-Agentur.
Iran would be prepared to open "on a voluntary basis" its Parchin armed forces installation to monitors with the U.N. nuclear watchdog, he said. Tehran in March tentatively offered to permit the agency to inspect the base after denying access to high-level IAEA teams that made two visits to the country this year.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog has noted concerns that the Parchin site has been used for research activities with potential nuclear-weapon applications (Deutsche Presse-Agentur, April 24).
Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on Monday played down Israel's hints of a potential strike on Iran as "empty words [and] bluffing," the Associated Press reported (Associated Press I/CBS News, April 23).
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, though, on Monday said his government is not "playing games," the Times of Israel reported.
“These are genuine, serious matters. Underpinning all the preparations and the activities (being undertaken by the Israeli army), there has to be a willingness to tackle the real challenge if it comes,” Barak said. “This is not theoretical. This is not (preparation) for the sake of it.”
"We really have to be ready for every kind of test. I don’t want to elaborate as regards our capabilities, but when we speak to our friends about not taking any options off the table, we mean what we say,” the minister said (Raphael Ahren, Times of Israel, April 24).
Iran is interested in collaborating on atomic matters with Kazakhstan, Interfax on Monday quoted an Iranian diplomat as saying.
"It is Iran's goal to ensure nuclear weapons nonproliferation and to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes," Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Araqchi said. "Iran has good experience in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Kazakhstan is experienced in the nuclear weapons nonproliferation sphere. This is a very good track for bilateral cooperation" (Interfax, April 23).
Meanwhile, the independent Middle East Media Research Institute in a report last week disputed assertions that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had issued a religious edict against the assembly, storage or employment of nuclear weapons.
"No such fatwa ever existed or was every published," according to the report (Middle East Media Research Institute release, April 19).
Elsewhere, Iran's assertion that it has obtained sensitive information from a downed U.S. unmanned aerial vehicle was received skeptically on Monday by U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, AP reported .
"Based on my experience ... I would seriously question their ability to do what they say they have done," Panetta said without elaboratin.
http://www.nti.org/gsn/
