‘Cyber-Holocaust’ Fails to Take Israel off the Internet

Hackers group Anonymous has had very limited success with #OpIsrael, an annual campaign to carry out a cyber-Holocaust and remove Israel from the internet. 

Anonymous, an anti-Israel group of hackers, has threatened Israel with what it termed a cyber-Holocaust just a week ahead of Holocaust Remembrance Day. Only a few Israeli websites were successfully hacked as part of the annual operation, known as #OpIsrael. This is the fourth year that the operation has been carried out, although the hackers emphasized last summer’s Operation Protective Edge against Hamas rockets launched into Israel by Hamas terrorists as a motivator this year.

Affected sites feature images including the ISIS flag and the al-Aksa Mosque, as well as graphics praising the hackers. A reading of the Koran provides background music. The message emblazoned on the website begins with an Arabic phrase that translates as, “Allah is sufficient for us and the best disposer of affairs,” a traditional invocation of Divine revenge. The text in broken English follows:

“Greetings world we are AnonGhost We are always here to punish you ! Because we are the voice of Palestine and we will not remain silent ! We are the sound of the forgotten people, the freedom fighter in the cyberworld and our main target is Zionisme and israhell, if you are asking why your website got hacked by us, its basically because we want to share our message and show the world who we are, we are not looking for fame but we have a goal to achieve we supporte all hackers teams and we supporte all the freedom mouvement in the world. Muslims are everywhere – We will enter to Palestine soon 🙂 remember this 😀 #OpIsrael Engaged , Expect us !” [sic]

Despite threats to bring down “servers, government websites, Israeli military websites, and Israeli institutions” and to “erase [Israel] from cyberspace in our electronic Holocaust,” only a small number of sites have been affected. Popular singer Shalom Hanoch has had his website hacked, as has the Israeli Center for Educational Excellence. An attempted attack against the Israel Airport Authority failed. The hackers are primarily concentrated in Morocco and Saudi Arabia.

This is the fourth year in a row that Israel has been the target of a massive cyber attack, though they have had little success. Last year, the Shin Bet (Israel’s Security Agency) opened a cyber operations room in preparation but found that the hackers had caused primarily mild inconvenience. The postal service and education ministry websites were down briefly, and the hackers posted the names, ID numbers and contact information of many Israeli officials.

Israel is relatively well-protected against cyber attacks, as the country is a leader in cyber warfare, with special units dedicated to the field in the IDF, the Shin Bet and the Prime Minister’s Office. The Shin Bet and the PMO’s National Cyber Defense Center both provided assistance to private websites in preparation for the attack.

By: United with Israel Staff