[Infowarrior] - Good job -- Iran unplugs oil terminal from Internet

Mon Apr 23 07:02:27 CDT 2012

While not 100% foolproof, this action sure raises the bar for "nuisance attacks" and other easy-to-launch Internet-based scenarios that are scripted for cyber war exercises such as the one the WH did back in March when a phishing attack shut down the NY power grid.   Phishing? Really? REALLY?   And we in the US wonder why we have ongoing and *preventable* cyber problems?   Why are such critical infrastructure systems on the public network, anyway?

At least one country understands how to better protect critical infrastructures at a *fundamental* level even if it means a little more work for them on a day-to-day basis to actually enhance its cybersecurity.  

It's sad that Iran understands how to secure critical infrastructures better than we do.  

-- rick

Report: Iran unplugs oil terminal from Internet

BY NASSER KARIMI 
Associated Press

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/ML_IRAN_INTERNET?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-04-23-06-30-32

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran has disconnected its oil ministry and its main crude export terminal from the Internet to avoid being attacked by computer malware, a semiofficial news agency reported on Monday.

Mehr said an export terminal in Kharg Island and other oil facilities came under attack from malware and hackers but continued their work as usual.

Some 80 percent of Iran's daily 2.2 million barrels of crude export goes through the Kharg facility, located off its southern coast.

Iran says that it is involved in a long-running technological war with the United States and Israel. In recent years, Tehran has repeatedly announced it has defused malware in its industrial sector including the highly specialized Stuxnet in 2010, which it said had targeted the country's nuclear facilities.

This round of cyberattack began Sunday, Mehr quoted Hamdollah Mohammadnejad, deputy oil minister in charge of civil defense, as saying. He said the ministry and some provincial officers were taken offline, and a special headquarters was set up to confront the attacks.

Earlier this year, head of Iran's civil defense agency Gholam Reza Jalali said the energy sector of the country has been a main target of cyberattacks over the past two years.

Iran has recently announced a series of cyberdefense measures spearheaded by the Revolutionary Guards - a unit which already runs every key military program in Iran and many industries.

In March, the Guard set up what it claims is a hack-proof communications network for its high-level commanders.

Ultimately, Iran says it wants to set up a completely indigenous Internet that is also aimed at checking a "cultural invasion" by enemies aimed at promoting dissent and undermining the ruling system.

The Stuxnet virus was reported to have disrupted controls of some nuclear centrifuges. Tehran says its scientists neutralized the malware and it only damaged the laptops of some personnel at a nuclear power plant.

Iran is at odds with Israel and the West over its controversial nuclear  program. The U.S. and its allies accuse Tehran of wanting to develop weapons technology. Iran denies the claims, saying its program is for peaceful purposes.

Iran has reported other cyberattacks since, including an infection in April 2011 dubbed "Stars" and a spy virus about which little is known but its name, "Doku."

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Just because i'm near the punchbowl doesn't mean I'm also drinking from it.