MIDDLE EAST: Suspected hackers bring down Israel's stock exchange and national carrier websites

Record ID: 353608

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: Suspected hackers bring down Israel's stock exchange and national carrier websites
  • Date: 17th January 2012
  • Summary: ABU ZUHRI LOOKING AT SCREEN, WEBSITE READING 'HACKERS'
  • Embargoed: 1st February 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jerusalem, Gaza, Israel
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Topics: Crime,Communications,Technology
  • Reuters ID: LVA1RFIJFG4LVWLAXS8JTLKBFZJI
  • Story Text: Computer hackers disrupted access to the websites of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) and Israel's flag carrier El Al Airlines <ELAL.TA> on Monday (January 16), officials at both companies said.
    Stock trading and flights operated normally despite the cyber assaults, which occurred as Israeli media reported that pro-Palestinian hackers had threatened at the weekend to shut down both these websites.
    "What happened today is hackers were trying to flood our gateways, the lines to our internet website. And partially they have succeeded and prevented people from accessing our website. But we have detected the source of the flood and we have stopped them from sending the fault messages to our website," said Yoni Shemesh, Executive Vice President of The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
    The bourse's website could only be accessed intermittently.
    "The attacks we see now do not necessarily effect the companies, it effects their PR, their image but they do not as I understand effect the actual performance of the companies and this does not symbolize a serial threat. However, the actual constitution in Israel of hacking, I do not know, either individuals or groups of hackers or maybe countries. This is more concerning effect about these attacks," Dr Gabi Siboni, an expert in cyber warfare, told Reuters Television.
    El Al, Israel's national airline said it was busy trying to overcome the problem.
    "El Al is aware that for the past two weeks cyber war has raged against Israel," El Al said it's website. "The company is closely monitoring the Saudi hacker's activity."
    A hacker who identified himself as coming from Saudi Arabia had earlier this month published thousands of personal and credit card details of Israelis apparently gleaned from commercial websites in one of the worst cases of mass cyber identity theft experienced by Israel.
    "I am very concerned because I think that we are going to see a trend, that these attacks are going to be more and more. We are going to see it more and more happening and I think that hackers will or countries that are attacking Israel will find more opportunities to attack and they will try to get into actual operation systems of attacked companies. And we in Israel have to cope with that and to prepare our sectors, business sectors mainly business sectors to be protected against this kind of techs mainly by regulation and by instructions how to protect these facilities," Siboni explained.
    There was no claim of responsibility for Monday's cyber incidents.
    Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the attacks on Israeli internet sites was a new battle field.
    "We in Hamas praise the successes Arab hackers have achieved in targeting a number of Israeli sites and the harm they have caused to the interests of the Israeli occupation. We in Hamas consider this a new resistance field against the Israeli occupation, therefore we call on our Arab youth to develop their methods in the electronic warfare in the face of Israeli crimes," Abu Zuhri said.
    Israel opened an agency to tackle cyber attacks earlier this month. A founding member of the unit, Isaac Ben-Israel, said the country's most vital systems were already protected, but that incidents like the ones seen recently would only increase.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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