Banque Saudi Fransi Victim of Cyber Attack but Operations Unharmed -Source

Sunday, Sep 02, 2012

DUBAI(Zawya Dow Jones)--Banque Saudi Fransi (1050.SA), the lender part-owned by France's Credit Agricole S.A., was the victim of a cyber attack last week that impacted the company's shared computer disc drives but left its operations unharmed, a person familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

The Stuxnet cyber weapon, which was first categorized in 2010 and widely believed to have been used by the United States and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear program, disabled information on the shared drives and turned them into a link to a copy of the worm, the person, who asked not to be named, told Zawya Dow Jones.

The bank's operations weren't affected and continued to work normally, the source added.

A spokesman for Banque Saudi Fransi declined to comment when contacted by Zawya Dow Jones.

Last month, a virus, widely believed to have been called the Shamoon, hit Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company, and Qatar's Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Co., known as RasGas, but left their production unaffected.

The virus forced Saudi Aramco to isolate all of its electronic systems from outside access, while RasGas said Thursday it has shut down part of its computer system since Aug. 27.

Shares of Banque Saudi Fransi last traded flat at SAR32.40.

-By Summer Said, Dow Jones Newswires; +966-546-842373; summer.said@dowjones.com; Twitter: @ZDJnews

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

02-09-12 1104GMT