TEHRAN, April 24 (UPI) -- Iran's Oil Ministry has set up a crisis center to deal with a cyberattack on the country's oil industry but said the attack were foiled.
Hamdollah Mohammednejad told Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency on Tuesday experts were still working on the cyberattack, but said all the units involved in producing and exporting crude oil were working properly. Mohammednejad admitted some of the ministry's servers were targeted but said system security officials successfully fended off the attack.
The British daily The Guardian said a virus struck the computer and communications systems of Iran's main oil export facilities on Kharg island, as well as the ministry's internal network and Web sites. The newspaper said the Kharg Island oil terminal, which accounts for 80 percent of the country's daily crude oil exports was hit by the virus, as were terminals on the islands of Ghesh and Kish.
Ministry spokesman Alireza Nikzad told the semi-official Fars News Agency the computer virus failed to harm the ministry's main data. "The cyberattack has not damaged the main data of the Oil Ministry and the National Iranian Oil Co. since the general servers are separate from the main servers, even their cables are not linked to each other and are not linked to Internet services," he said.
In March, Iran said it would establish a Supreme Council of Cyberspace to defend the country against cyberattacks, Fars News Agency said.
