US: Aviation company targeted by Iranian hackers, FireEye says

A suspected Iranian hacking group has been targeting aviation and energy companies in the United States, Saudi Arabia and South Korea since 2013, computer security company FireEye said in a report Wednesday. The group seems largely to have engaged in stealth spying to give Iranian military and corporate interests information about possible enemies and competition. However, the researchers also found signs of a data-destroying program capable of wiping disks, erasing volumes and deleting files deployed in affected companies located in the Middle East, said John Hultquist, director of intelligence analysis at FireEye. During its investigation, FireEye found signs of links to malicious software called SHAPESHIFT capable of destroying data within a company's network. FireEye said it had not directly observed the hackers carry out any destructive operations, but the capability appears to be present.<br/>