Saudi Arabia’s state oil giant, which confirmed that some of its company files had been leaked via a contractor, said its operations were not affected following a data breach.
The Dhahran-based company confirmed a limited amount of data had been leaked from the company following reports a cyber extortionist claimed to have seized troves of its data last month and demanded a $50 million ransom from the company.
Aramco said in a statement that it had “recently become aware of the indirect release of a limited amount of company data which was held by third-party contractors.”
“We confirm that the release of data was not due to a breach of our systems, has no impact on our operations, and the company continues to maintain a robust cyber security posture,” Aramco added.
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According to the AP, a page accessed by the news agency on the darknet claimed the extortionist held 1 terabyte worth of Aramco data. A terabyte is 1,000 gigabytes.
The page offered Aramco a chance to have the data deleted for $50 million in cryptocurrency, while another timer counted down from $5 million, likely in an effort to pressure the company. It remains unclear who is behind the ransom plot.
This is not the first time Aramco has been targeted by cyber criminals. In 2012, the kingdom’s oil giant found itself hit by the so-called Shamoon computer virus.
The attack erased data on about three-quarters of Aramco’s computers, according to reports at the time, including files, spreadsheets and emails, and then displayed a picture of a burning American flag on computer screens. The attack forced Aramco to shut down its network and destroy over 30,000 computers.
