In December last year, Saudi Arabia’s state oil company Saudi Aramco revealed that an August 2012 cyber attack affected some 30,000 of the firm’s computers and was carried out by organized hackers from several foreign countries.
“Due to the recent negative press regarding alleged price fixing, it is assumed that BP, Royal Dutch Shell and the price-reporting agency Platts, will be at the top of the target list,” CyByl added, referring to unannounced inspections of a number of companies earlier this week by European Commission investigators looking into possible collusion in oil markets.
A manifesto was announced in May setting out a plan, “OpPetrol”, in which hackers were exhorted to target a number of Western powers – the US, Canada, the UK, Italy, France and Germany – two BRIC members, Russia and China, and a handful of Middle Eastern countries: Israel, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. The date set for the attacks was June 20, although a number of incidents have already taken place.
Actual message of OpPetrol
==MESSAGE==
#OpPetrol
Next Operation is #OpPetrol” on the 20 June 2013 ,this Op is very special because we gonna hit many countries in the same time, especially:
*USA
*CANADA
*ENGLAND
*ISRAEL
*ARABIA SAUDIA (Only Gov)
*CHINA
*ITALY
*FRANCE
*RUSSIA
*GERMANY
*KUWAIT(Only Gov)
*QATAR (Only Gov)
Why this Op ?
Because Petrol is sold with the dollar ($) and Saudi Arabia has betrayed Muslims with their cooperation. So why isn’t Petrol sold with the currency of the country which exports it?
Because the Zionists own us like this \!/
Historically, the Currency of Muslims was not the paper money that you know today, it was Gold and Silver.
The new world order installed their own rules so that they can control us like robots.
In the future, there will be no money paper and coins. The NWO are planning, by 2020, to make “Electronic Money” (like credit cards).
It’s a money that you can’t see and you can’t touch. So, i believe that human kind will become more and more like a machine, more robotic, and even more addicted to the seeming “convenience” of it.
I also believe that this will make it much easier for them to steal from us. They do not need to make wars to steal petrol, Gold, etc….
So we are in a “new world” called “Petro-Dollar” !!!!! :s :s s
We defend our dignity and the dignity of all races, even if they are not Muslims. We are not racists. You can call us Jihadists or “terrorists,” whatever you want, BUT, the REAL terrorists know who they are, and so do we. \!/ They are the killers of innocents, the stealers of land, dignity, rights, and resources; they are the creators of the bombs, drones, and surveillance technologies that have stolen all that is sacred from us.
We are the new generation of Muslims and we are not stupid. We do not fear anyone or anything. We represent Islam. We fight together, We stand together, We die together.
==END OF MESSAGE==
For the last three countries on the list, the targets were limited to the governments and the plan complained of the “betrayal” of Muslims, seemingly through the countries’ agreeing with the use of the US dollar to price hydrocarbons.
Oil should be priced in the currency from which it is exported, the manifesto said, going on to broaden its concerns to include that of paper money as a whole and note the historical use of gold and silver as currency.
There have been a number of complaints in the past from various parties about the use of the US dollar, but this is for good reason: it is the most convenient and widely accepted means of exchange in the world. In 2009, there was talk that the BRICs and Middle Eastern producers were moving to a basket of currencies to replace the US dollar.
The use of a reserve currency, whatever that might be, makes international trade possible.
The manifesto also raised concerns about a move to “paperless money”, apparently because this would allow governments to produce cash from thin air – suggesting something of an unawareness of the way in which quantitative easing has already worked around the world.
The planned attacks are “not expected to be a large success”, according to HP, although it has still called for administrators to take precautionary steps. Similar attacks were carried out last year, in an effort apparently intended to “Save the Arctic”.
The Saudis have also been targeted in the past, with around 30,000 computers being compromised. Aramco’s CEO, Khalid al-Falih, described the attacks as being driven by organised crime and compared the importance of IT systems with “oxygen”.
The attack on Aramco was disruptive but, al-Falih told CERA that it did not lead to the spilling of a single drop of oil. OpPetrol seems unlikely to have an operational impact either, but there have been a number of cyber attacks in the past that have led to material problems.
The most recent example is probably the Stuxnet virus, which was engineered to disable Iran’s nuclear centrifuges. The virus was engineered specifically to target Siemens’ systems, raising and lowering the speed of centrifuges, with the apparent intention of destroying them. Speculation about the creator of the Stuxnet virus has seen fingers pointing at the US and Israel, who are clearly opposed to Iran’s nuclear proliferation. Iran also appears to have been targeted by another virus, Flame, which had a more traditional information-gathering and espionage focus.
Going further back, the CIA is reported to have targeted a Russian gas pipeline through a similar means in the early 1980s, apparently causing one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history.
While the US and its allies appear to have been focusing their hacking efforts on traditional spying endeavours, China seems to be more broadbrush in its approach. State-linked hackers in China have been seen to target a number of industrial sectors, including energy, and in 2011 the Night Dragon attacks were said (PDF) to be “targeting and harvesting sensitive competitive proprietary operations and project-financing information with regard to oil and gas field bids and operations.”
More computers means more targets, while greater government use of cyberweapons increases the risk of such tools being repurposed and directed at criminality and vandalism, beyond espionage and sabotage. Just as energy companies have to compete to access new acreage and new techniques, so too must they stay ahead of those who see them as targets, either for the theft of commercial information or sabotage – or just the haphazard vandalism that may occur on June 20.
All Target countries; Already employed many security experts, and took proper care of the their system, when dead line passed and there is no report of any attempt of cyber Attack. it seems its a HOAX by these security companies or even its real threat, still its western countries make millions on this issue because, most of these security cos are from US or UK.