Shamoon

Shamoon,^{[lower-alpha 1]} also known as Disttrack, is a modular computer virus discovered by Seculert^[1] in 2012 that attacks computers running the Microsoft Windows "NT" line of operating systems (it is not known to function correctly on Windows 9x/ME). The virus is being used for cyber espionage in the energy sector.^[2][3][4] Its discovery was announced on 16 August 2012 by Symantec,^[3] Kaspersky Lab,^[5] and Seculert.^[6] Similarities have been highlighted by Kaspersky Lab and Seculert between Shamoon and the Flame malware.^[5][6]

The virus has been noted as unique for having differing behaviour from other malware cyber espionage attacks.^[7] Shamoon is capable of spreading to other computers on the network, through exploitation of shared hard drives. Once a system is infected, the virus continues to compile a list of files from specific locations on the system, erase and then send information about these files back to the attacker. Finally, the virus will overwrite the master boot record of the system to prevent it from booting.^[3]

The virus has hit companies within the oil and energy sectors.^[2][4] A group named "Cutting Sword of Justice" claimed responsibility for an attack on 30,000 Saudi Aramco workstations, causing the company to spend a week restoring their services.^[8] The group later indicated that the Shamoon virus had been used in the attack.^[9] Computer systems at RasGas were also knocked offline by an unidentified computer virus, with some security experts crediting Shamoon for the damage.^[10]

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