Israel Government Websites Recover from a Massive Cyberattack

Israel appears to be on the road to recovery following a massive cyberattack. Several Israeli government websites, including those for the ministries of health, interior, justice, and welfare, were taken down by attackers on Monday evening, according to Haaretz and Kan’s Amichai Stein. The website of the Prime Minister’s Office was also attacked.  The country’s National Cyber Directorate announced in a statement that all of the websites are now operational.

The government hasn’t named a likely offender, but it did claim the sites were swamped with traffic as a result of a denial of service attack. According to Haaretz sources, the cyberattack targeted sites with the gov.il domain, and the perpetrators were either a state actor or a “big organization.” According to DW, an Iran-linked hacker gang claimed responsibility, and the attack could have been an act of retaliation for an alleged Israeli attack on an Iranian nuclear site. However, neither has been confirmed.

Israel Government Websites Recover from a Massive Cyberattack

According to a defense insider, it’s unclear whether this is the largest hack against Israel so far. The NCF and defense authorities, on the other hand, were apparently concerned enough to declare a state of emergency and assess the potential damage, which included anything that could threaten other essential websites and infrastructure.

Unlike the denial-of-service attacks that crippled Ukrainian government websites ahead of Russia’s invasion, the denial-of-service attacks in this case are unlikely to have caused significant harm. They made it difficult to access the websites, but there is no proof that the perpetrators vandalized the sites or stole data. Nonetheless, the malware may aggravate an already sensitive situation, as it comes only a day after Iran fired missiles at the Iraqi city of Erbil, ostensibly as a warning to the United States and its allies. Israel was already on high alert, and it has a history of retaliating physically against hackers.

Check out? Police Successfully Takes Down the Most Dangerous Criminal Hacking System