Iran denies role in Aramco cyberattack

• Tweet

TEHRAN, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Claims by the U.S. government that Tehran was behind an August cyberattack on the oil industry in Saudi Arabia are political, Iran said.

Iran was blamed by Washington for launching a denial-of-service attack against the Saudi oil industry and other Western interests, reports The New York Times.

In August, the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Saudi Aramco, reported that a computer virus entered the company's network through personal computers Aug. 15.

The company said in a statement that about 30,000 workstations were affected by the virus. All workstations had returned to service by the end of August.

Mehdi Akhavan Beh-Abadi, director of the Iranian National Center of Cyberspace, was quoted by the Tehran Times as saying any blame leveled against Tehran was likely political.

"We interpret this issue politically and in light of domestic issues and (the November presidential) election in the United States," he said.

The Iranian National Computer Emergency Response Team recently distributed software to protect against a type of malware dubbed Flame. Iran in April unplugged computer servers from an oil terminal at Kharq Island following a virus outbreak believed to have been caused by the malware.