A voracious virus attack has hit computers running key parts of Iran’s oil sector, forcing authorities to unplug its main oil export terminal from the Internet and to set up a cyber crisis team, according to reports on Monday. The Mehr news agency reported that Iran’s principal oil terminal on Kharg island in the Gulf has been disconnected from the Internet since Sunday along with facilities in other parts of the country. The Kharg terminal handles 90 percent of Iran’s oil exports, according to the National Iranian Oil Terminals Company. Mehr said the Internet disconnection “has not caused any problem” in oil production and exports. Mehr did not give a source for the report, and no official Iranian media confirmed the information. The websites of the Iranian oil ministry (www.mop.ir) and the National Iranian Oil Company (www.nioc.ir) were off-line for hours after they and other affiliated official sites were brought down by the malware, Mehr and other news agencies including Fars and ISNA said. By late Monday, the ministry website was back up, though the NIOC site remained down. Oil ministry spokesman Alireza Nikzad told the ministry’s news website SHANA that, contrary to initial reports in Iran, the virus had succeeded in wiping data off official servers.
