A new round of cyber attacks is hitting American companies, but unlike recent Chinese attacks that have been espionage-based, these attacks originate in the Middle East and are seeking to destroy rather than extract information, the New York Times reports:
Another official said that in the new wave of attacks, "most everything we have seen is coming from the Middle East," but he did not say whether Iran, or another country, appeared to be the source.
Last week’s warning was unusual because most attacks against American companies — especially those coming from China — have been attempts to obtain confidential information, steal trade secrets and gain competitive advantage. By contrast, the new attacks seek to destroy data or to manipulate industrial machinery and take over or shut down the networks that deliver energy or run industrial processes. [...]
Two senior officials who have been briefed on the new intrusions say they were aimed largely at the administrative systems of about 10 major American energy firms, which they would not name. That is similar to what happened to Saudi Aramco, where a computer virus wiped data from office computers, but never succeeded in making the leap to the industrial control systems that run oil production.
The Pentagon has made plans in the past six months to dramatically increase its cyber security forces, as administration officials have cited it as a top security concern.
"Cyber is now at a point where the technology is there to cripple a country," former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said earlier this year, "to take down our power grid system, to take down our government systems, take down our financial systems, and literally paralyze the country. That is a reality."