Even as Israel fends off relentless rocket attacks from Gaza, government and private websites are under siege from hackers, who have mounted 44 million cyberattacks in less than a week, the government said.
The international hacker collective Anonymous, which has broken into websites of international banks, governments and even the CIA, said it mounted #OpIsrael to protest Israel’s “Operation Pillar of Defense” against rocket attacks launched from the Gaza Strip.
“The reasons for Anonymous intervention through #OpIsrael should be abundantly clear: What is happening in Palestine is oppression,” Anonymous declared. They have no navy, no army, or air force. There is no war in Gaza.”
Only one of the millions of hacking attempts on Israeli government websites was successful, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz told The Jerusalem Post
. But the sheer volume of tries demonstrates the stress being put on the country’s web infrastructure. Steinitz did not name the site that was hacked, but said it was back up within minutes.
Sites related to the Defense Ministry, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Foreign Ministry have been targeted, as well as sites of local government and private businesses. Most sites that were successfully attacked were simply taken down, though many were left displaying pro-Palestinian images and messages. The Finance Ministry told the paper that there are typically a few hundred hacking attempts on Israeli sites per day.
“The ministry’s computer division will continue to block the millions of cyberattacks,” Steinitz said. “We are enjoying the fruits of our investment in recent years in developing computerized defense systems.”
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