Iran probes cyber attack on main oil terminal

Iran is investigating a suspected cyber attack on its main oil export terminal and on the oil ministry itself.

A virus was detected inside the control systems of Kharg Island, which handles the vast majority of Iran’s crude oil exports, but the terminal remained operational, a source at the National Iranian Oil Company said.

The virus, which is likely to draw comparisons with the Stuxnet computer worm that reportedly affected Iranian nuclear facilities in 2009-10, struck late on Sunday. It hit the internet and communications systems of Iran’s oil ministry and of its national oil company, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. Computer systems controlling a number of Iran’s other oil facilities were disconnected from the internet as a precaution.

Hamdullah Mohammadnejad, the head of civil defence at the oil ministry, reportedly said Iranian authorities had set up a crisis unit and were working out how to neutralise the attacks.

Late last year, Iran identified damage it said had been inflicted by a virus aimed at disrupting industrial processes, called Duqu.

Experts say Duqu appears to be designed to gather data to make it easier to launch future attacks and that few organisations could have written such complex programs. There is no confirmation the new attack is related to Duqu.