Israeli sites shuttered in advance of cyber attack
Anti-Israel hacker group 'Anonymous' promises day-long hacking spree as some government websites disabled
The website of the Education Ministry and other government bodies shut down Monday morning as a precautionary measure against expected cyber attacks on Israeli institutions by pro-Palestinian hackers.
The decision to take extra measures followed a security appraisal of the cyber threat by hacktivists connected to the Anonymous group, in an operation dubbed OpIsrael, Walla reported.
The annual operation is expected to see hackers attempt to take over Israeli websites throughout the day, via denial-of-service attacks and other measures.
The public was warned by officials not to open emails from unknown sources, to avoid suspicious Facebook links, and to monitor bank accounts for odd activity.
This is the second year that the anti-Israel hacker group has organized the day-long hacking spree.
After last year’s April 7 attacks, Israeli officials maintained the attempts were largely unsuccessful, although the Education Ministry and Central Bureau of Statistics websites were down for hours.
The government has geared up this year amid fears that viruses could be sent to the state agencies, shutting down computers and compromising important data.
A Facebook event page for the cyber-attack had close to 4,000 members listed as “attending” as of Thursday afternoon. One user posted a list of 161 targets, all of whose URLs end with gov.il, on the page.