Special to WorldTribune.com

ABU DHABI — Saudi Arabia has reported a major cyber attack that crippled the security services.

Officials said Saudi government websites were the target of cyber attacks in mid-May. They said several of the sites, including that of the Interior Ministry, were brought down by foreign hackers.

The Interior Ministry said an investigation traced the attack to hundreds of addresses in several unidentified countries. The ministry said its website was restored within two hours.

This marked the second major cyber attack on the Saudi kingdom in less than a year. In 2012, the state-owned Saudi Aramco was disabled by an attack that inserted viruses in 30,000 computers.

Officials said the Aramco attack employed a virus known as Shamon.

Later, Saudi authorities announced the arrest of several Aramco employees with access to the company’s computer system, but denied any link to the cyber strike.

Over the last week, Syria has been linked with cyber attacks on Western websites that relayed information by Sunni rebels. This included Britain’s Financial Times newspaper, hacked by a pro-Assad group called the Syrian Electronic Army.

“Hacking private or state-owned websites is punishable by the law, and those responsible for this will be uncovered sooner or later,” Saudi Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja said.