DUBAI: A group of hackers suspected of working in Iran for its government is targeting the aviation and petrochemical industries in Saudi Arabia, the US and South Korea, a cybersecurity firm warned Wednesday.
The report by FireEye also said the suspected Iranian hackers left behind a new type of malware that could have been used to destroy the computers it infected, an echo of two other Iran-attributed cyberattacks targeting Saudi Arabia in 2012 and 2016 that destroyed systems.
Iran’s office at the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday and its state media did not report on the claims. However, suspected Iranian hackers long have operated without caring if people found it was them or if there would be consequences, making them incredibly dangerous, said Stuart Davis, a director at one of FireEye’s subsidiaries.
“Today, without any repercussions, a neighboring country can compromise and wipe out 20 institutions,” Davis said.
FireEye, which often works with governments and large corporations, refers to the group as APT33, an acronym for “advanced persistent threat.” APT33 used phishing e-mail attacks with fake job opportunities to gain access to the companies affected, faking domain names to make it look like the messages came from Boeing Co. or defense contractors.
The hackers remained inside of the systems of those affected for “four to six months” at a time, able to steal data and leaving behind the malware that FireEye refers to as Shapeshifter. The coding contains Farsi-language references, the official language of Iran, FireEye said.
Timestamps in the code also correspond to hackers working from Saturday to Wednesday, the Iranian workweek, Davis said. The programs used in the campaign are popular with Iranian coders, servers were registered via Iranian companies and one of the spies appears to have accidentally left his online handle, “xman_1365_x,” in part of the code.
That name “shows up all over Iranian hacker forums,” FireEye’s John Hultquist said. “I don’t think they’re worried about being caught. ... They just don’t feel like they have to bother.”
The Associated Press was able to find other clues pointing to an Iranian nexus. One of the e-mail addresses used to register a malicious server belongs to an Ali Mehrabian, who used the same address to create more than 120 Iranian websites over the past six years.
Neither Mehrabian, who listed himself as living in Tehran, nor “xman” returned e-mails seeking comment.
Iran developed its cyber capabilities in 2011 after the Stuxnet computer virus destroyed thousands of centrifuges involved in Iran’s contested nuclear program. Stuxnet is widely believed to be an American and Israeli creation.
Iran is believed to be behind the spread of Shamoon in 2012, which hit Saudi Arabian Oil Co. and Qatari natural gas producer RasGas. The virus deleted hard drives and then displayed a picture of a burning American flag on computer screens. Saudi Aramco ultimately shut down its network and destroyed over 30,000 computers.
A second version of Shamoon raced through Saudi government computers in late 2016, this time having the destroyed computers display a photograph of the body of 3-year-old Syrian boy Aylan Kurdi, who drowned fleeing his country’s civil war. Suspicion again fell on Iran.
FireEye’s report said it believed APT33 “is likely in search of strategic intelligence capable of benefiting a government or a military sponsor.”
High on the list of any potential suspects within Iran would be its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. US prosecutors in March 2016 accused hackers associated to Guard-linked companies of attacking dozens of banks and a small dam near New York City. Hackers linked to the Guard also have been suspected of targeting the e-mail and social-media accounts of Obama administration officials.
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Associated Press writer Raphael Satter in Paris contributed to this report.
Iranian hackers unleash malware against aviation, petrochem industries — cybersecurity firm
Iranian hackers unleash malware against aviation, petrochem industries — cybersecurity firm
WHO chief urges end to attacks on Sudan health care after 70 killed in drone strike
- WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus: ‘We continue to call for a cessation of all attacks on health care in Sudan’
The head of the World Health Organization called on Saturday for an end to attacks on health care workers and facilities in Sudan after a drone attack on a hospital in Sudan’s North Darfur region killed more than 70 people and wounded dozens.
“As the only functional hospital in El Fasher, the Saudi Teaching Maternal Hospital provides services which include gyn-obstetrics, internal medicine, surgery and pediatrics, along with a nutrition stabilization center,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus posted on X after the Friday strike.
“We continue to call for a cessation of all attacks on health care in Sudan, and to allow full access for the swift restoration of the facilities that have been damaged,” Tedros said.
The war between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which broke out in April 2023 due to disputes over the integration of the two forces, has killed tens of thousands, driven millions from their homes and plunged half of the population into hunger.
The conflict has produced waves of ethnically driven violence blamed largely on the RSF, creating a humanitarian crisis.
Darfur Governor Mini Minnawi said on X that an RSF drone had struck the emergency department of the hospital in the capital of North Darfur, killing patients, including women and children.
Fierce clashes have erupted in El Fasher between the RSF and the Sudanese joint forces, including the army, armed resistance groups, police, and local defense units.
Devastating toll for Gaza’s children: Over 13,000 killed and an estimated 25,000 injured, UN says
- UN says out of 40,717 Palestinian bodies identified so far, roughly a third or 13,319 were children
- Nearly 19,000 children were hospitalized for acute malnutrition in four months before December 2025
UNITED NATIONS: The war in Gaza has been devastating for children: More than 13,000 have been killed, an estimated 25,000 injured, and at least 25,000 hospitalized for malnutrition, according to UN agencies.
As Britain’s deputy UN ambassador, James Kariuki, recently told the Security Council, “Gaza has become the deadliest place in the world to be a child.”
“The children of Gaza did not choose this war,” he said, “yet they have paid the ultimate price.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported Thursday that of the 40,717 Palestinian bodies identified so far in Gaza, one-third – 13,319 – were children. The office said Friday the figures came from Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, said the estimate of 25,000 children injured came from its analysis based on information collected together with Gaza’s Health Ministry.
UN deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said nearly 19,000 children had been hospitalized for acute malnutrition in the four months before December.
That figure also came from UNICEF, which said it was from data collected by UN staff in Gaza focusing on nutrition, in coordination with all pertinent UN agencies.
The UN says thousands of children have also been orphaned or separated from their parents during the 15-month war.
Yasmine Sherif, executive director of the UN global fund Education Cannot Wait, told a press conference that 650,000 school-age children haven’t been attending classes and the entire education system has to be rebuilt because of the widespread destruction in Gaza.
Diplomats from Britain, France and other countries also cited the toll on Israeli children who were killed, injured and abducted during Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 – with some still being held hostage.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon asked the Security Council whether it ever paused to consider the plight of Israeli children “mutilated, tortured and murdered” on Oct. 7, the 30 who were kidnapped and the tens of thousands who have been displaced, their homes destroyed.
“The trauma they have endured is beyond imagination,” he said.
Danon called Thursday’s council meeting on children in Gaza “an affront to common sense,” accusing Hamas of turning Gaza into “the world’s largest terror base” and using children as human shields.
“The children of Gaza could have had a future filled with opportunity,” he said. “Instead, they are trapped in a cycle of violence and despair, all because of Hamas, not because of Israel.”
Devastating toll for Gaza’s children: Over 13,000 killed and an estimated 25,000 injured, UN says
- The UN says thousands of children have also been orphaned or separated from their parents during the 15-month war
UNITED NATIONS: The war in Gaza has been devastating for children: More than 13,000 have been killed, an estimated 25,000 injured, and at least 25,000 hospitalized for malnutrition, according to UN agencies.
As Britain’s deputy UN ambassador, James Kariuki, recently told the Security Council, “Gaza has become the deadliest place in the world to be a child.”
“The children of Gaza did not choose this war,” he said, “yet they have paid the ultimate price.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported Thursday that of the 40,717 Palestinian bodies identified so far in Gaza, one-third – 13,319 – were children. The office said Friday the figures came from Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
The UN children’s agency, UNICEF, said the estimate of 25,000 children injured came from its analysis based on information collected together with Gaza’s Health Ministry.
UN deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed said nearly 19,000 children had been hospitalized for acute malnutrition in the four months before December.
That figure also came from UNICEF, which said it was from data collected by UN staff in Gaza focusing on nutrition, in coordination with all pertinent UN agencies.
The UN says thousands of children have also been orphaned or separated from their parents during the 15-month war.
Yasmine Sherif, executive director of the UN global fund Education Cannot Wait, told a press conference that 650,000 school-age children haven’t been attending classes and the entire education system has to be rebuilt because of the widespread destruction in Gaza.
Diplomats from Britain, France and other countries also cited the toll on Israeli children who were killed, injured and abducted during Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 – with some still being held hostage.
Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon asked the Security Council whether it ever paused to consider the plight of Israeli children “mutilated, tortured and murdered” on Oct. 7, the 30 who were kidnapped and the tens of thousands who have been displaced, their homes destroyed.
“The trauma they have endured is beyond imagination,” he said.
Danon called Thursday’s council meeting on children in Gaza “an affront to common sense,” accusing Hamas of turning Gaza into “the world’s largest terror base” and using children as human shields.
“The children of Gaza could have had a future filled with opportunity,” he said. “Instead, they are trapped in a cycle of violence and despair, all because of Hamas, not because of Israel.”
US says it is ‘critical’ that Gaza ceasefire implementation continues
- Both Republican Trump and Democratic former President Joe Biden have been strong backers of Washington’s ally Israel
WASHINGTON: The US government said on Saturday it was “critical” that implementation of the Gaza ceasefire continues, after four Israeli soldiers were freed by Palestinian Hamas militants in exchange for 200 Palestinian prisoners.
KEY QUOTES
“It is critical that the ceasefire implementation continues and that all of the hostages are freed from Hamas captivity and safely returned to their families,” the US State Department said in a statement on Saturday.
Statements by the State Department and the White House welcomed the release of Israeli hostages and did not mention the Palestinian prisoners freed by Israel.
“The United States celebrates the release of the four Israeli hostages held in captivity for 477 days,” the State Department added.
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT
The week-old ceasefire in Gaza began last weekend just before US President Donald Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20. Both Republican Trump and Democratic former President Joe Biden have been strong backers of Washington’s ally Israel.
Trump has credited his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff for the ceasefire deal reached after months of talks mediated by the US, Egypt and Qatar. Before his inauguration, Trump warned there would be “hell to pay” if hostages held by Hamas in Gaza were not released.
CONTEXT
Hamas took around 250 hostages during an Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed, according to Israeli tallies. It sparked the latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel’s subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed over 47,000 people, according to the Gaza health ministry, and led to accusations of genocide and war crimes that Israel denies. It also displaced nearly Gaza’s entire population and caused a hunger crisis.
Who are the Palestinian prisoners released in exchange for Israeli hostages?
- An activist in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Aradeh, was sentenced to life in prison for a range of offenses going back to the second intifada, or uprising against Israel’s occupation in the early 2000s
RAMALLAH, West Bank: The release of four female Israeli soldiers from Hamas captivity on Saturday came at a heavy cost for Israel.
Israel released 200 Palestinian prisoners, 120 of them serving life sentences, from its jails as part of a ceasefire deal. They ranged in age from 16 to 67.
Some were set free into an exuberant West Bank, while those whose offenses were considered too serious were transferred to Egypt.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah on Saturday, dozens of freed Palestinians, all looking wan and thin in stained gray Israeli prison jumpsuits, disembarked from a white Red Cross bus. They launched themselves into a jubilant crowd.
The images dredged up trauma for Israelis whose loved ones were killed by some of those released.
Moshe Har Melech, whose son was killed in a Palestinian shooting attack in 2003, said that he was sickened by the released prisoners being greeted as “superheroes” and warned that even exile was no deterrent.
“They’ll continue remotely recruiting and establishing terrorist cells,” he said. “But this time, they’ll be more experienced.”
Adrenalized teenagers streamed the revelry on social media, and mothers wept as they hugged their sons for the first time in years.
“It can’t be described. To be between your mother and father, it’s an indescribable feeling,” said Azmi Nafaa, accused of trying to ram his vehicle into Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in 2015 and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
After nine years in prison, Nafaa hugged his mother, Hadiya Hamdan. She suggested that she cook meat dumplings in yogurt sauce, and he laughed, suggesting instead the more elaborate “mansaf,” a Bedouin dish of lamb and rice.
“That will be difficult for you,” he said.
“No,” she replied. “Nothing will be difficult.”
There was no such reception for the 70 prisoners sent into exile, whose convoy made its way south and quietly slipped through Gaza’s Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
Underscoring the challenges for Israel, the reception for prisoners in Ramallah, the seat of the Palestinian Authority, revealed an outpouring of support for the rival Hamas group. Many young Palestinians waved the bright green flags of Hamas and called on the militant group to capture more Israelis in order to free all the prisoners.
Hard-line commentators criticized the deal as justice undone and capitulation to the enemy.
“A deal that releases brutal murderers ... endangers the lives of more Israelis down the road,” David M. Weinberg, a senior fellow at the conservative research group Misgav, wrote in the Makor Rishon right-wing newspaper. “And that road is not particularly long.”
Here’s a look at the more prominent Palestinian prisoners released on Saturday.
Mohammed Aradeh, 42
An activist in Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Aradeh, was sentenced to life in prison for a range of offenses going back to the second intifada, or uprising against Israel’s occupation in the early 2000s. Some of the charges, according to the Israeli Prison Service, included planting an explosive device and attempting murder.
He was credited with plotting an extraordinary prison escape in 2021, when he and five other detainees used spoons to tunnel out one of Israel’s most secure prisons. They remained at large for days before being caught.
From an impoverished and politically active family Jenin, in the northern occupied West Bank, Aradeh has three brothers and a sister who have all spent years in Israeli prison.
He was welcomed as a sort of cult hero in Ramallah on Saturday as family, friends and fans swarmed him, some chanting “The freedom tunnel!” in reference to his prison escape. When asked how he felt, Aradeh was breathless.
Over and over he muttered, “Thank God, thank God.”
Mohammed Odeh, 52, Wael Qassim, 54, and Wissam Abbasi, 48
All three men hail from the neighborhood of Silwan, in east Jerusalem, and rose within the ranks of Hamas. Held responsible for a string of deadly attacks during the second intifada, the men were sentenced to multiple life sentences in Israeli jail in 2002.
They were accused of plotting a suicide bombing at a crowded pool hall near Tel Aviv in 2002 that killed 15 people. Later that year, they were found to have orchestrated a bombing at Hebrew University that killed nine people, including five American students. Israel had described Odeh, who was working as a painter at the university at the time, as the kingpin in the attack.
All three were among those transferred to Egypt. Their families all live in Jerusalem.
The Abu Hamid brothers
Three brothers from the prominent Abu Hamid family of the Al-Amari refugee camp in Ramallah — Nasser, 51, Mohammad, 44, and Sharif, 48 — were deported together on Saturday. They had been sentenced to life in prison over deadly militant attacks against Israelis in 2002.
Their brother, a different Nasser Abu Hamid, was one of the founders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade — an armed militia affiliated with Fatah, the secular political party that controls the Palestinian Authority.
He was also sentenced to life in prison for several deadly attacks. His 2022 death from lung cancer behind bars unleashed a wave of angry protests and strikes across the West Bank as Palestinian officials accused Israel of medical neglect.
The family has a long arc of Palestinian militancy. The mother, Latifa Abu Hamid, 72, now has three sons exiled, one still imprisoned, one who died in prison and one who was killed by Israeli forces. Their family house has been demolished at least three times by Israel, which defends such punitive home demolitions as a deterrent against future attacks.
Mohammad Al-Tous, 67
Al-Tous had held the title of longest continuous Israeli imprisonment until his release on Saturday, Palestinian authorities said.
First arrested in 1985 while fighting Israeli forces along the Jordanian border, the activist in the Fatah party spent a total of 39 years behind bars. Originally from the West Bank city of Bethlehem, he was among the prisoners exiled to Egypt.