Shamoon

Pierluigi Paganini January 10, 2017
A Second variant of Shamoon 2 targets virtualization products

A second variant of the Shamoon 2 malware was discovered by researchers at Palo Alto Networks, this threat also targets virtualization products. A new strain of the Shamoon 2 malware was spotted by the security experts at Palo Alto Networks, this variant targets virtualization products. Shamoon, also known as Disttrack, was first spotted in a wave of attacks that targeted […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 01, 2016
The dreaded Shamoon Wiper is back in a new attack

Shamoon wiper is back, security experts from Palo Alto Networks and Symantec spotted it in an attack on a single Saudi company. Do you remember the Shamoon malware? Shamoon, also known as Disttrack, was first spotted in a wave of attacks that targeted companies in Saudi Arabia in 2012. Among the victims, there was the petrol […]

Pierluigi Paganini November 23, 2015
Damballa revealed the secrets behind the Destover malware that infected the Sony Pictures

Security researchers at Damballa Willis McDonald and Loucif Kharouni have conducted a deep analysis of the Destover malware used in the Sony Pictures attack. Security researchers at Damballa Willis McDonald and Loucif Kharouni have conducted a deep analysis of the wiper used by threat actors in the Sony Pictures hack. The experts discovered that attackers used a highly sophisticated disk-cleaning […]

Pierluigi Paganini May 26, 2015
Iran has foiled a cyber attack against the oil ministry

Iran – The Cyber Attacks Emergency Center in FATA has thwarted a major cyber attack  originated from US against the Oil Ministry. The Iranian Government announced that on Tuesday it had foiled a cyber-attack on the Islamic republic’s Oil Ministry. According to the Fars news agency, the Brigadier General Kamal Hadianfar, head of the cyber police, confirmed […]

Pierluigi Paganini March 10, 2015
Information Warfare – Iran vs America. Why buy a weapon when I have a keyboard?

A newly disclosed secret report illustrates the tightening of cyber dispute between the United States and Iran , both for spying and sabotage. Since Robert Tappan Morris in 1988 created the first worm, cyberspace started to change its virtual state in a critical cyberwar field.  Even if the first worm was an error, aimed at […]

Pierluigi Paganini January 16, 2014
An increasing number of targeted attacks against the energy sector

Symantec published in the report titled “Targeted Attacks Against the Energy Sector” to describe the security landscape for companies of the sector. Companies and industries belonging in the energy sector are waiting most targeted sectors on a global scale, Symantec has issued a very interesting report titled “Targeted Attacks Against the Energy Sector” that provide […]

Pierluigi Paganini November 19, 2013
Energy industry warned over threat of cyberattacks, alarm raised by UAE

The energy industry continues to be a privileged target for cyber attacks of hacktivists, state-sponsored hackers and cybercriminals. The alarm from UAE Oil and gas companies are considerable privileged targets of cyber attacks, cybercriminals, state-sponsored hackers and hacktivists daily menace security of infrastructure in the energy industry. The number of attacks worldwide against Oil and […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 19, 2012
Iran, the cyber shooting range, new malware detected

On December 16th the Iranian Maher center issued an advisory warning of a new “targeted data wiping” malware discovered during an investigation. First analysis of the center revealed that the malicious code has a simple as efficient design that allow it to wipe files on different drives in various predefined times. The malware wipes disk partitions […]

Pierluigi Paganini December 18, 2012
Saudi Aramco, war of information on the cyber attack

Last summer a series of cyber attacks hit energy sector, one of the world’s largest oil companies the Saudi Aramco was attacked by a group named the Cutting Sword of Justice. Hackers used the Shamoon malware to attack the systems of the company, fortunately, production environment wasn’t impacted. The malware is able to wipe files from […]

Pierluigi Paganini November 12, 2012
Nation state sponsored attacks: the offensive of Governments in cyberspace

Article published on The Malta Indipendent on October 11th 2012 Pierluigi Paganini, David Pace, Publishers of mainstream ICT news are ablaze with articles on the evolution of the “Flame” malware targeting the Middle East region for cyber espionage purposes, and new menaces such as Gauss or Shamoon.  No longer the province of deviant black-hat hackers or […]