Anonymous hackers to target global oil industry June 20

London (Platts)--16May2013/1141 am EDT/1541 GMT

Activist hackers from the Anonymous collective have announced plans to target the oil and gas sector in an operation starting June 20.

In a video message posted on the YouTube website, Anonymous said OpPetrol would be aimed at a number of countries involved in the global oil industry, "especially the US, Canada, England, Israel, China, Italy, France, Russia, Germany, the government of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar."

The video message said these countries were being targeted because of the way oil is traded internationally in dollars, and "Saudi Arabia has betrayed Muslims with their cooperation."

Cyber-security company CyByl said the "motivation appears to be political with hacktivists believing that the Western world, through its connections with Saudi Arabia, 'uses oil and gas to control the world'."

"As such, it is inferred that Saudi Arabia will be the main target for this campaign," the company said.

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.

--Richard Swann, richard.swann@platts.com
--Edited by James Leech, james.leech@platts.com

© 2013 Platts, The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.  To subscribe or visit go to:  http://www.platts.com

http://www.platts.com/RSSFeedDetailedNews/RSSFeed/Oil/26947251