A Who's Who of Mideast-targeted Malware
By: Elinor Mills, CNET
What's up with all the malware aimed at the Middle East?
For the second time in two weeks a virus outbreak has been reported at an energy company in that region. Qatari liquified natural gas producer RasGas said its corporate network and Web site were down after getting hit by a virus on Monday. Earlier this week the Saudi Aramco oil company confirmed that its network was hit by a virus two weeks ago, shutting down 30,000 workstations. Neither company identified the virus, but in at least one of the cases it is believed to be malware known as "Shamoon."
These are just the latest attacks targeting organizations in the region recently involving malware designed to steal secrets, wipe data, shut down corporate computers, and even sabotage nuclear power plants. Some of them are believed to be related, but others are not. Several were discovered in the course of researchers investigating others.
Here's a breakdown of some of the malware affecting that region, in roughly chronological order:
