Pierluigi Paganini September 30, 2019

Iran ‘s oil minister on Sunday ordered representatives of the energy sector to be on ‘full alert’ to the threat of “physical and cyber” attacks.

Iran’s oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, ordered companies operating in the energy sector to be on ‘full alert’ to the threat of “physical and cyber” attacks.

“it is necessary for all companies and installations the oil industry to be on full alert against physical and cyber threats,” reads a statement published on the oil ministry’s Shana website.

Iran fears a retaliation of Western countries that are accusing it to carry out physical and cyber attacks against their infrastructure and countries in the Middle East.

Iran’s oil ministry said that the Government of Washington has launched a full-scale economic war” against the Islamic republic.

In the middle-September, drone attacks hit two major oil facilities run by the state-owned company Aramco in Saudi Arabia, one of them is the Abqaiq site.

Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Abqaiq plant, according to a spokesman for the group in Yemen, it had deployed 10 drones in the attacks.

The group is threatening Saudi Arabia of further attacks. The Iran-aligned Houthi rebel movement fights the Yemeni government and a coalition of regional countries led by Saudi Arabia that fights the rebels since 2015, when President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi was was kicked out of Sanaa by the Houthis.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo blamed Iran for coordinated the attacks, it added that we are facing an unprecedented attack on the world’s energy supply.

Riyadh, Berlin, London, and Paris also blame Teheran for attacks that caused severe damages to the Saudi oil sector on September 14.

Iran denied any involvement in the attacks. Immediately after the attacks, US President Donald Trump announced that his country was preparing a response. President Trump opted out for an intensification of economic sanctions against Teheran.

Military and intelligence experts believe that western coalition, driven by the US could carry out a series of cyber attacks against Iranian critical infrastructure. A few days after the drone attacks, some western media reported destructive cyber attacks against infrastructures in the Iranian oil sector, but Iran denied it.

“Contrary to Western media claims, investigations done today show no successful cyber attack was made on the country’s oil installations and other crucial infrastructure,” reads a statement published by the government’s cyber security office.

Despite the statement, security experts believe that a cyber offensive against Iranian infrastructure is onoing.

Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – Iran, oil sector)

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