Just over five months ago, on Holocaust Day, "Globes" reported on a cyber attack against Israel by Muslim hacker groups sponsored by underground organization, Anonymous. The attack included hacking into Israeli websites and crashing them, hacking into Facebook accounts of Israeli citizens, and other activity aimed at damaging Israel's Internet space.
The hackers declared that the cyber attack's general objective was to wipe Israel off the Internet map, which means that the attack was unquestionably a failure. But from the hackers' perspective, they were able to deal Israel a painful blow, and they are now ready for a new round. A few days ago, a YouTube video was distributed calling on Muslim hackers worldwide to attack Israel on Wednesday, September 11, the anniversary of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, which killed thousands of Americans.
That attack is under the Twitter hash tag #OpIsrael, the same hash tagas the attack five months ago. The current campaign uses the hash tag #OpIsraelReborn. The hackers are launching the attack in revenge for what they claim is the ongoing assault on the Palestinians by Israel.
As a prelude to the attack, the hackers published a list that includes data on 165,000 Israelis. The data include email addresses, passwords, names, residence, mobile phone numbers, dates of birth, and gender. CyberInt security expert Shlomo Eisenberg believes that the data came from website set-up and storage portal Area.co.il, which was hacked by a Saudi hacker in the previous cyber attack. However, he believes that other hackers are responsible for present attack.
Over the next few days, people should be very wary about attempts to hack their private accounts (whether email, Facebook, or any other service). The most important thing to do is to stay alert. For example, avoid clicking on suspicious links or entering unknown sites. On Facebook, it is advisable to be cautious in accepting requests to be a friend from unknown people and to avoid clicking on suspicious posts.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 9, 2013
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