Israel government, security services websites down in suspected cyber-attack
Attack follows threat by hacking group Anonymous in response to interception of Gaza flotilla; websites of IDF, Mossad and government ministries among crashed websites.
By Anshel Pfeffer and Oded Yaron Tags: anti-Israel IDF Shin Bet Mossad Tamir Pardo Yoram CohenSeveral Israeli government websites crashed on Sunday in what appeared to be a cyber-attack by hackers. The websites of the IDF, Mossad and the Shin Bet security services were among the sites that went down, as well as several government portals and ministries.
The apparent attack comes after the international cabal of hackers known as Anonymous threatened a cyber-attack on the Israeli government’s computers in response to its interception of a Gaza-bound flotilla on Friday.
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Anonymous hackers group logo. |
The IDF and Shin Bet said they were investigating the reason for the malfunction. Security officials stressed that only the external government sites crashed, and that the internal computer networks were unharmed.
In a video that was uploaded to YouTube, Anonymous warns that if the siege on Gaza is maintained, it will have no choice but to go on the attack.
Anonymous said that if the siege continues and Israeli forces intercept additional flotillas, or if they conduct additional operations such as the commandeering of the Mavi Marmara, it will have no alternative but to launch repeated cyber-attacks on Israeli computer systems until the siege ends.
Anonymous has succeeded in the past in bringing about the temporary disabling of many websites, including credit card companies that refused to transfer donations to the WikiLeaks organization.
Several months ago, Anonymous announced that they have the code for Stuxnet, which was distributed on the internet. Security experts usually do not see them as a strategic threat, as they do programmers who are responsible for this type of malicious software.
Anonymous threatened to disable the Knesset website a few months ago, but even if hacking did occur then, the website continued to function and did not suffer any apparent damage.
Last May, Israel established a national taskforce to prevent cyber "terror attacks" by foreign countries on its strategic computer networks. The national cybernetic taskforce was set up in order to protect Israel from possible harm to its defense systems and infrastructure networks.
קראו כתבה זו בעברית: נפלו אתרי האינטרנט של משרדי הממשלה, צה"ל, המוסד והשב"כ
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that is complete BS! if you look closer there is a red banner left and a green banner right in its logo. this is a clear sign that this community is driven in asia!
This Hacking by a group of world citizens and the Arab spring are examples. A very positive result for mankind. Not so good for a state based on injustice like Israel.
congrats to that great job! keep it going, Anonymous! LOL
idf, iaf will be blind then. having this "anonymous" community as an enemy is worse than 1000 irans.
When introducing a mere update of an early article which appeared on the same day, transfer the comments on the old article to the new one. People write comments so they can be read, not in order to see them buried quickly. "What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others." - Confucius
I think most of Israelis will choose supremacy, because of their religion of supremacy
the problem is that you muslims prefer terrorism due to your religion of inferiority complexes.
The Egyptians have opened the Rafah crossing to PEOPLE only, not to GOODS. They are not fools, and are not willing to take upon themselves the burden of Gaza; they prefer to leave it to Israel. The Gazans are still unable to import some raw materials and export finished goods to the outside world. As long as this situation continues, the Gaza economy will remain in a very poor state and the flotilla problem, intended to call attention to the Gaza suffering, will remain. Of course, Israel should lift the economic siege which has failed to achieve any intended goal. The original intent of the siege was to get the Gazans to overthrow Hamas, which was not acieved. Later, new excuses were found, the latest being Shalit's captivity. Now that Shalit was released, let us watch out for a new improved excuse. All this said, the military threat from Gaza remains real. The air and sea blockade will have to remain in place. An economic recovery will take the wind out of the sails of future flotillas.
you are sadly mistaken. As long as there is a sea blockade there will be flotilla attempts.
should screen its computer experts if they were not hired solely on basis of being sons and daughters of some impprtant Lefties
Were they the "public relations" web-sites?
That is funnnnnyyyyy
Doesn't seem so: it's got the Anonymous sugnature.
The Egyptian border is open to Gaza. There is no humanitarian crisis and no siege. Methinks your time would be better spent hacking Hamas computers until they stop launching rockets against civilians.
kid, even US admit israel occupying Palestine.
Anonymous is doing both institutions a favor, exposing their faulty defense.
A favor it would be if it was not a slap in the face and demoralizing.
Hmm. Facebook, Fox, etc were all up yesterday 11/5/11. We all know every time a server crashes anywhere "aonymous" claims it was them... What a bunch of losers.
is nothing more than a terror group, did they attack arab sites when they kill innocent people? So a bunch of anti Semite computer junkies doing terror acts, I cant wait till governments wake up and arrest them, these are kids that wont do well in jail even one second,
Whether these were just DOS attacks or something more sophisticated we pray for Israel's success in tracking down the culprits and their financial sponsors and executing just retribution upon them, and may Israel learn from this and tighten up their security with more hardened protection of even their public sites.
The elite 40 man hit squad from Dubai has been reactivated for this perilous task. If they can smother an old man with a pillowcase they can certainly handle some kids writing malicious code from their Fischer Price computer stations.
The always supported the ill reputation os Israel only seeing one side of the conflict and not the side of their own country, which gives them work and shelter
take out their leader and they main programers / hackers. nerds can hide behind their computers, but when you put force in the equation they will fold.
Who puts billions into defending an occupation while leaving your own firefighting equipment antiquated? Who puts billions into conscripting soldiers to put up checkpoints , man checkpoints, enforce cruel curfews while they dont even hire enough firemen? Who puts billions into an occupation while 1 in 4 Israelis live in poverty? fools will once again be cast out
it is a entire collective community spread over the globe. hacking is just one of its divisions.
I salute you!
Terror is also an atrocity so rockets fire from Gaza.
...made their minds up in the 1890's and haven't learnt a thing since then.
I'm afraid the two state solution is being obsoleted by current israeli actions, seems like one state solution is very soon the only viable solution.
that might lighten live of Palestinians Like the oncoming waves of the Gaza-Fleets, it seems to be an adequate way to bind the forces of Israel so that thy could not do much more harm to Palestinians They must not succeed in their efforts, by bringing down the sites but the trial is worth doing.
you really think there is a way to make peace with terrorists?
It's impossible to make peace with Israel as it terrorizes palestinians with illegal and brutal occupation. These people aren't interested in peace, only the piece of land that pals are sitting on..
Wheb a thief takes over your house and kills most of your family, we will call you a terrorist if you throw a stone on him, right?
If you think Israel is occuping land belonging to someone else, then so is every other nation in the world. For example the land that Canada occupies was captured from the native Indinians, and on and on it goes. So why is the old double standard being used here?
from Japan