Pro-Hamas Hackers Takeover Israel Billboards, Emergency Services
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Roshan Amiri
- . October 13, 2023
- . Update: October 13, 2023 12:21 pm
Hackers hijacked two smart billboards near Tel Aviv to counter Israel’s attack on Gaza with pro-Hamas footage on Thursday. The billboards were splashed with Israeli flag on fire and the escalating war in Gaza.
Israeli news sites, like Jerusalem Post and the real-time rocket alert app, and emergency services have been disrupted because of the cyberattack. Two groups, mainly “Anonymou Sudan” and “AnonGhost” have taken responsibility for the cyberattack. AnonGhost also hacked an official app used by police officers in the Israel Defense Forces.
A third group, “Ghosts of Palestine, attacked Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ben Gurion Airport for a brief period on Monday.
60 Hacker Groups Targeting Israel
The hacker groups took to Telegram to say that they are proud to defend Palestine. “It’s a duty to try to establish peace for humanity, spreading awareness. As you can see religion doesn’t make us different, or nationality, we are united together.”
According to CyberKnow, a security research group, at least 58 hacker groups including a pro-Russian group called Killnet, are actively targeting Israeli and Palestinian organizations with DDoS attacks. However, 10 groups are in support of Israel. The groups, such as Ghosts of Palestine, have also called out hackers worldwide to join them in attacking Israeli and US public and private infrastructure.
Moreover, there are Iran state-backed hacking groups who have been actively engaged in espionage campaigns and disruptive attacks. Killnet has also sided with Hamas and is targeting Israeli government systems. It claimed to have taken down an Israeli government website and Shin Bet portal on Sunday.
Indian hacker group, known as the Indian Cyber Force, who recently attacked a Canadian military website targeted a Palestinian telecommunications company, the National Bank’s website, and a government webmail service, as well as the official Hamas website. Consequentially, pro-Palestinian hackers hit Indian government websites.
And ThreatSec said it doesn’t like Israel and doesn’t like war. So it attacked Gaza.
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Hackers Are Threatening
During wars and conflicts, it’s common to see hacktivist, but not all attacks are real. Experts believe some groups do it just to get attention or fame. Gil Messing, chief of staff at Check Point Software Technologies, said these people are threatening, not necessarily executing. “The motivation is more about creating fear and discomfort, not so much about creating damage that is significant.”
Messing said the biggest cyberattack so far, since Hamas launched its Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, a Jordan hacker group breached an Israeli College’s system and published about 250,000 records of employees and students, as well as former students’ info and more on Telegram. The college had to take its system offline.
