Russian Hackers Target Israeli Government and Media Websites, Allying with Hamas
Russian hackers, including hacking groups linked to Russia, have launched cyberattacks against Israeli government and media websites, forming an alliance with Palestinian military group Hamas. These attacks come after a series of deadly strikes carried out by Hamas on Israel over the weekend.
One of the hacking groups, known as Killnet, claims to consist of patriotic Russian volunteer hackers. On Sunday, Killnet announced its intention to target all Israeli government systems using distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. This type of cyberattack floods websites with traffic, causing them to go offline. Killnet blamed Israel for the recent violence and accused the country of supporting Ukraine and NATO. The group claimed responsibility for bringing down an Israeli government website and the website of the security agency Shin Bet for a period of time on Sunday. The veracity of their claim has not been independently confirmed, but both websites were indeed down for a period on Sunday according to check-host.net, a website monitoring site.
Meanwhile, Anonymous Sudan, another hacking group suspected of having ties to Russia, declared its support for the Palestinian resistance and took credit for attacking the website of the Jerusalem Post. This resulted in the brief offline period of the newspaper’s website on Monday morning. The Jerusalem Post confirmed that it had been targeted by multiple cyberattacks, but its website has since been restored.
Experts in cybersecurity believe that these cyberattacks indicate that other Russian hacktivists are actively taking sides and supporting Hamas in its conflict with Israel. It is suggested that these attacks are opportunistic in nature, as they aim to exploit the media coverage of the conflict for their own gain. This creates the perception that Russia is supporting Hamas and opposing Israel.
Numerous other hacktivist groups have also claimed responsibility for attacks on Israeli infrastructure. These groups have targeted websites associated with power plants and missile alert systems. However, the extent of their attacks cannot be independently verified.
In addition to the cyberattacks by Russian hackers, pro-Israel groups have launched their own attacks against Palestinian organizations. One such group, calling itself Indian Cyber Force, took down the website of the Palestinian National Bank and the website of Hamas on Sunday. Both websites remained inaccessible on Monday.
Despite these cyberattacks, experts indicate that they have had little impact thus far. Gil Messing, the chief of staff for Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point Software Technologies Ltd., stated that the recent attacks have not been significant or long-lasting. However, this situation could change moving forward.
It remains uncertain whether Iranian hacking forces are involved in the cyber conflict between Russia-backed hackers and Israel. In the past, Iran has been accused of carrying out cyberattacks against Israel.
Rob Joyce, the director of cybersecurity at the US National Security Agency, has stated that the conflict has not yet witnessed a major cyber component. So far, there have been only small denial-of-service attacks and minor web defacements. However, he anticipates that more hacktivists and cyber actions in support of Hamas may occur in the future, although these initial efforts are expected to be unsophisticated yet impactful.
While the situation unfolds, experts stress the need for heightened vigilance and proactive cybersecurity measures from both Israeli and global entities.
