Another False Flag? “Destructive Iranian Hackers” Allegedly “Wreak Havoc” With Saudi Computer Systems

In what may soon emerge as the latest middle-east diplomatic scandal, not to mention roil the just concluded OPEC deal, Bloomberg reports that state-sponsored hackers have conducted a “series of destructive attacks on Saudi Arabia over the last two weeks, erasing data and wreaking havoc in the computer banks of the agency running the country’s airports and hitting five additional targets.” Additionally, ‘several’ government agencies were also targeted in attacks that came from outside the Kingdom, according to state media.
However, according to early reports from a Saudi probe, “digital evidence” suggests the attacks emanated from Iran. While Bloomberg believes that this could present President-elect Donald Trump with a major national security challenge as he steps into the Oval Office, it also threatens to destabilize the recent detente between the two countries, which granted Iran bragging rights to be the only country allowed to boost output as part of the Venna OPEC production cut deal.
To be sure, one can’t discount the possibility of a false flag attack, with the intentional purposes of destabilizing relations. According to Bloomberg, unlike a 2012 attack on Saudi Aramco or the one by North Korea against Sony Pictures in 2014, “the latest was perpetrated by detonating a cyber weapon inside the networks of several targets at once. Concerns over a broader campaign set off a search in computer networks throughout the Gulf for more traces of the digital bomb.” It is unclear whether Iran has the technological wherewithall to engage in such a complex cuberattack.

This post was published at Zero Hedge on Dec 1, 2016.