The waves of cyberattacks that have rocked Saudi Arabia over the past few months are linked to the earlier Shamoon attacks. However, the initial 2012 attack was the work of a single group, whereas the latest attacks have been carried out by different groups of varying skills and expertise, all following instructions provided by one malicious actor, McAfee researchers have found.

Researchers at McAfee Strategic Intelligence believe the 2012 Shamoon attacks against Saudi Arabia’s state-run oil company Saudi Aramco and Qatari natural gas company RasGas, the attacks last November against Saudi organizations, and these latest attacks are all the work of hacker groups supported and coordinated by a single actor.