A version of Shamoon, the destructive computer virus that crippled tens of thousands of computers at Middle Eastern energy companies four years ago, was used in mid-November to attack computers in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the region, according to US security firms. CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks and Symantec warned of the new attacks on Wednesday. They did not name any victims of the new version of Shamoon, which cripples computers by wiping their master boot records that they use to start up. They also did not say how much damage had been caused or identify the hackers. FireEye said in a blogpost that its Mandiant unit "has responded to multiple incidents at other organisations in the region". A spokesperson declined to identify the countries or organisations. The reappearance of Shamoon is significant as there have only been a handful of other high-profile attacks involving disk-wiping malware, including ones in 2014 on Sheldon Adelson’s Las Vegas Sands and Sony’s Hollywood ...
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