The computer hacking collective that calls itself Anonymous claims that it attacked at least 55 Israeli websites on Thursday, including some belonging to the government, the Knesset and the Israel Defense Forces. The activists even publicized the addresses of these websites. However, Israeli sources said the addresses were fabricated. "We are ready for any kind of attack," an Israeli official said. Two sites that were attacked were NCP-Israel, which maintains a link between Israel and the OECD, and news website Mako, which was brought down several times on Wednesday, just as it was promoting the finale of the high-rating "Big Brother" reality TV show. However, both sites resumed routine activity on Thursday. As it does every year, Anonymous issued warnings earlier this week threatening to launch a massive cyber attack on Israeli websites. The group continues to harass Israel's network security professionals every year, even though to date it has not been able to launch a truly successful attack. The annual attack, nicknamed OpIsrael, tries to target websites, databases, and internal networks belonging to the government, the IDF, banks, universities, newspapers, large and small businesses, and individual private users. In past years, the attacks have been disorganized and the scope of the damage has been relatively minor. However, there is no guarantee that every attempt will be unsuccessful, as the hackers could focus their attacks on specific organizations. Anonymous' plans for Thursday included a large-scale assault launched from various locations around the world, aimed at generating a denial of service for users and overloading Israel's communications channels, causing them to crash. According to Eli Cohen, the head of Experis Cyber, the general assessment was that the assault would fail, but users could experience slower service and unusually heavy Internet traffic for a few days. The cyber protection unit of the Israeli company Radware, which provides security solutions for virtual and cloud data centers, identified an attack device called Router Hunter 2.0 and instructional videos that were distributed to hackers prior to the attack. The device is designed to break into private routers and take over private Wi-Fi networks.
Hacker group threatens annual cyber attack on Israeli institutions
Hacker group Anonymous claims to have attacked 55 Israeli websites, including Knesset, IDF • Israeli officials reject claim, say Israel is "ready for any kind of attack" • Earlier this week, Anonymous issued warning of large-scale attack, dubbed OpIsrael.
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