US allies get help to repel Iranian computer attacks The Obama administration has begun helping Middle Eastern allies build up their defences against Iran's growing arsenal of cyber weapons and will be doing the same in Asia to contain computer network attacks from North Korea, senior US officials have said. The officials would not say which countries in the Persian Gulf have signed up for help in countering Iran's computer abilities. But the list, some officials say, includes the nations that have been the most active in tracking Iranian arms shipments, intercepting them in ports and providing intelligence to the US about Iranian actions. The three most active in that arena are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. The new effort in the Persian Gulf and Asia is the latest example of how the US is managing a new era of digital conflict. A directive signed by President Barack Obama that surfaced on Friday - the third in a series of leaked documents published by The Washington Post - underscored how the US is trying to prepare itself and its allies. It has been propelled by two high-profile attacks in the past year. One was against Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia's largest state-run oil producer. The attack, said US officials, was carried out by Iran. The other, an attack on South Korea's banking and media companies this northern spring, was attributed to Pyongyang. "The Iranian attack on the Saudis was a real wake-up call in the region," said one senior administration official who requested anonymity. Iran itself appears to have been the target of cyber attacks in recent years, most notably through viruses known as Stuxnet and Flame, which it accuses the US and Israel of initiating.