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News ID: 30519
Publish Date : 27 August 2016 - 20:50

Iran Detects Malware in Petrochem Plants

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran has detected and removed malicious software from two of its petrochemical complexes, a senior military official said on Saturday, after announcing last week it was investigating whether recent petrochemical fires were caused by cyber attacks.
The official said the malware at the two plants was inactive and had not played a role in the fires.
"In periodical inspection of petrochemical units, a type of industrial malware was detected and the necessary defensive measures were taken," Gholamreza Jalali, head of Iran's civilian defense, was quoted as saying by the state news agency IRNA.
Iran is alert to the threat of cyber attack by foreign countries. The United States and the occupying regime of Israel covertly sabotaged Iran's nuclear program in 2009 and 2010 with the Stuxnet computer virus.
The National Cyberspace Council announced last week that it was investigating whether the recent petrochemical fires were triggered by a cyber attack.
But when asked if the fire at Iran's Bu Ali Sina refinery complex last month and other fires this month were caused by the newly-discovered malware, Jalali said: "the discovery of this industrial virus is not related to recent fires."
The oil minister said last week that most of the fires in petrochemical plants happened because the privatized petrochemical companies have cut their budgets for health and safety inspections.
Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Cyberspace Council Abolhassan Firouzabadi however said a team of experts would be having a look at the possibility of cyberattacks as being a cause.
"Special teams will be sent to the afflicted sites to study the possibility of cyber systems having a role in the recent fires,” he said.
The investigation comes in the wake of at least three fires at petrochemical and oil installations and another massive blaze on a 42-inch gas pipeline in recent weeks.
Iran experienced the first cyberattack on its main oil export terminal and on the Petroleum Ministry itself in April 2012 when a virus was detected inside the control systems of Kharg Island which handles the bulk of Iranian crude oil exports.
The attack, which authorities said was traced back to the U.S., forced the ministry to disconnect computer systems controlling other oil facilities.
But the most high-profile cyberattack against Iran was discovered in 2010 after the Stuxnet virus, designed to subvert industrial systems, targeted the country’s nuclear energy program.
The Stuxnet virus has become the most serious case of "state cyber-terrorism” because of its complexity and sabotage of sensitive properties.
In February, the New York Times reported that the U.S. had developed an elaborate plan for a cyberattack on Iran in the early years of the Obama administration.
The plan, code-named Nitro Zeus, was devised to disable Iran’s air defenses, communications systems and crucial parts of its power grid, the paper said.
It "was shelved, at least for the foreseeable future, after the nuclear deal struck between Iran and six other nations last summer was fulfilled,” the NY Times said.
The plan included efforts to infuse Iran’s computer networks with "implants” that could be used to monitor the country’s activities and, if ordered by Obama, to attack its infrastructure, the report said.