Alister Shepherd, Middle East and Africa director for Mandiant, FireEye, added, "In July we observed a significant increase in activity from this Iran affiliated APT group. The APT33 operation primarily focused on the energy sector, which has been affected by recent sanctions that were placed on Iran. The motivation behind the operation is uncertain, but it's possible that the attackers were using spear phishing to facilitate the theft of intellectual property or to subsequently cause disruption in retaliation to the sanctions. It's imperative for companies to ensure they are capable of quickly detecting and responding to these intrusion attempts."