Memory of Fire, Silence Engraved in the Oil Fields: The Sword of Justice and the Trail of Shamoon, August 2012

Memory of Fire, Silence Engraved in the Oil Fields: The Sword of Justice and the Trail of Shamoon, August 2012

The August 2012 cyber attack on Saudi Arabia's state-owned company, Saudi Aramco, represented a devastating threat to national infrastructure. The group of hackers named as the perpetrators was the Sword of Justice, which declared retaliation for the Saudi government's human rights abuses. The malware used, "Shamoon," was sophisticated in design, erasing files, disabling system reboots, and performing in-network infections in a coordinated manner. Approximately 30,000 terminals were destroyed, and recovery took weeks.

Shamoon colored the attack with symbolism, displaying an image of a burning American flag as a political message. Through this incident, the reality of interstate cyberwarfare and the vulnerability of the infrastructure were exposed. The United States and others suspected the involvement of Iran, particularly the Revolutionary Guard Corps, and later in the year, improved versions of Shamoon 2 and 3 emerged. To this day, it continues to threaten the Middle East's information and physical infrastructure.