Cyber Terror: Was the Israeli Defense Ministry Hacked?

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Cyber terror: Hackers may have infiltrated Israeli defense establishment networks, this according to the IT security firm Seculert. The hackers, probably Palestinian, infected computers in the Judea and Samaria Civil Administration and the Defense Ministry. The attack was conducted using fake e-mail messages with malicious attachments, “sent” by the Israeli General Security Service (Shabak).

Gaza-based Palestinian hackers have conducted a similar attack last year. This time the attack originated from a U.S. server, but experts noted that the attackers used a similar code.

IHLS – Israel Homeland Security

All in all 15 computers were breached, at least some of them belonging to companies offering support services for Israeli defense infrastructure. According to Seculert hackers were in control of the infected computers for at least a few days following the initial January 15 breach. The attackers sent an e-mail message containing files having to do with former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

In its response the Israeli government didn’t include any specific information regarding this latest development. According to the Defense Ministry Spokeswoman the Civilian Administration computers are under IDF jurisdiction and the events are being analyzed by the military’s C4I Branch. According to the statement the Defense Ministry has no information about a recent attack on its computers and the issue is under investigation.