Pierluigi Paganini August 29, 2016

The head of Iran’s civilian defense confirmed that a malware was found in petrochemical complexes, but it hasn’t caused the fires under investigation.

Last week, I reported the news related to a series of fires at Iranian petrochemical plants. The Iran’s Supreme National Cyberspace Council started an investigation to discover if the incidents at oil and petrochemical fires were caused by cyber attacks. Authorities fear that nation state actors may have launched an attack similar to Stuxnet one.

Mr. Abolhassan Firouzabadi, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Cyberspace Council, announced that a team of cyber experts will be involved in the investigation to understand if the incidents are linked and if they were caused by cyber attacks.

“Abolhassan Firouzabadi, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Cyberspace Council, says a team of experts will look at the possibility of cyberattacks as being a cause, Press TV reported on Sunday.

Special teams will be sent to the afflicted sites to study the possibility of cyber systems having a role in the recent fires, he said.” reported the Tehran Times.

Iranian cyber experts have spotted and removed two malware that infected systems at two petrochemical plants. The news was confirmed by a senior military official and reported by Venturebeat.com.

“Iran has detected and removed malicious software from two of its petrochemical complexes, a senior military official said on Saturday, after announcing last week it was investigating whether recent petrochemical fires were caused by cyber attacks.” reported by Venturebeat.com.

The official also added that the malware was not responsible for the incidents occurred at the petrochemical complexes, the experts discovered that it was inactive and not linked to the fires.

“In periodical inspection of petrochemical units, a type of industrial malware was detected and the necessary defensive measures were taken,” Gholamreza Jalali, head of Iran’s civilian defense, said the state news agency IRNA.

“the discovery of this industrial virus is not related to recent fires.”

As declared by the oil minister, the string of fires in petrochemical complexes was caused by the lack of proper safety measures caused by the cut of the budgets operated by the firms in the energy sector.

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – petrochemical complexes, Iran)

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