IT for Management: Cyber Security and Aramco Impact Report

This report analyzes the cyber security incident that targeted Saudi Aramco in 2012, specifically focusing on the impact of the Shamoon virus. The report details the nature of the attack, which involved a self-replicating virus that destroyed over 30,000 machines and resulted in significant data loss, impacting the company's petroleum production and leading to substantial financial losses. It examines the organization's response, including the adoption of American-style cyber security practices to mitigate future risks and changes in organizational processes. The report also provides recommendations for enhanced cyber security, such as the adoption of IDS/IPS and the installation of firewalls, to protect against future threats. The analysis highlights the importance of robust cyber security measures for large organizations to prevent disruptions and financial damages.

Running head: REPORT ON CYBER SECURITY AND ITS IMPACT
REPORT
ON
CYBER SECURITY AND ITS IMPACT
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note:

1CYBER SECURITY AND ITS IMPACT
Summary of the organization:
Saudi Aramco is one of the oil producing company that is very popular for its best quality
services to produce petroleum as well as natural gas. This organization is entirely based on Saudi
Arabia. While investigating the revenue of this organization it is found that the organization is
one of the largest company and has the second largest oil preserver. Being a vast organization it
has effectively incorporated information technology that helps to process the organizational data
(Perlroth & Krauss 2018).
Type of cyber-attack:
In the year 2012 the organization has been attacked by a self- replicating virus which has
majorly attacked the network server of the organization and that has impacted more than 30,000
machines. Studies has mentioned that the virus named Shamoon has significantly destroyed the
organizational network of world’s largest oil producer (Alshathry 2016).
Impact of the attack:
Followed by the above identification it is identified that Shamoon has destroyed the
systems of Saudi Aramco and has also permanently deleted the business data from the system.
While analyzing this aspect it is observed that the virus has impacted the organizational network
which has majorly impacted the business process of Saudi Aramco as the production data were
lost. Thus, followed by this identification it can be stated that Aramco has faced a significant
business downfall that has impacted the petroleum production.
Response of the organization:
Saudi Aramco has faced several significant problems while recovering from this scenario
as the impact of the identified threat was very vast. Followed by this identification it is observed

2CYBER SECURITY AND ITS IMPACT
that the organization has then incorporated American-style cyber security practices with the
purpose to avoid further cyber security attacks.
Cost:
During the investigation it is observed that due to the occurrence of this attack world’s
largest oil producer has faced several problems related to its business profit. It is determined
from the investigation that due to the occurrence of the working disruption Saudi Aramco has
faced on a major financial loss (Alelyani & Kumar 2018).
What did the organization do to mitigate the risk of future attacks? Did the
organization change its processes or procedures?
As it is discussed that the organization has incorporated American cyber security policies
with the purpose to regulate the working process of the organization to prevent cyber threats.
This approach has majorly influences the working process for the staffs as the staffs are now
more careful about their activities.
Recommendation:
Followed by the above identification it is observed that into the organizational
infrastructure of Saudi Aramco there is a huge necessity to incorporate effective cyber-security
system which will help them to avoid these threats. Thus, a list of recommendation to mitigate
these threats are mentioned below:-
 Adoption of IDS/IPS will surely protect the organization for cyber threats.
 Installation of firewall into the organizations network will help to protect the organizational
data from cyber threats (Aljuhani 2016).

3CYBER SECURITY AND ITS IMPACT
Reference:
Perlroth, N., & Krauss, C. (2018). A cyberattack in Saudi Arabia had a deadly goal. Experts fear
another try. New York Times, 15.
Alshathry, S., 2016. Cyber attack on saudi aramco. International Journal of Management, 11(5).
Alelyani, S., & Kumar, H. (2018). Overview of Cyberattack on Saudi Organizations.
Aljuhani, A. D. (2016). Cyber Security Threats and Suggestions to Protect Their
Attack. American Journal of Computer Science and Engineering, 3(1), 1.