ExtraTorrent | Israelis Claimed Palestinians Hacked Its Defense Ministry

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The Israeli government has recently claimed that the Palestinians hacked its Defense Ministry PC. The attack was carried out through an email attachment containing malicious software which looked like it had been sent by the country’s secret security agency.
 

According to Israeli security experts, the hackers temporarily took over 15 machines this January, one of which belongs to the country’s Civil Administration responsible for monitoring Palestinians in Israeli-occupied territory. The experts claimed that there were similarities to a cyber-assault on Israeli PCs waged more than a year ago from a server in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. Despite the fact that this time the attack was conducted from a server in the US, the investigators noticed writing and composition similarities with the previous hack.

Israel Defense Department representatives have refused to comment on the issue and neither have the Palestinians. It can’t be said for sure what exactly the intruders actually did when they gained control of the PC at the Civil Administration, which is a unit of the local Defense Ministry responsible for control over the passage of goods between Israel and the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. The agency also issues entry permits to Palestinians working in Israel.

It wasn’t revealed what the other 14 machines targeted by the intruders did, but the rumors are that they include companies involved in supplying Israeli defense infrastructure.

The most surprising fact in this event is that in a security obsessed nation like Israel someone could open a dodgy attachment. It seems that the email included an attachment about ex-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon who had just passed away. Moreover, some say that the infected email looked like it had been sent from the Shin Bet security service. The security experts managed to “sinkhole” the operation, tricking the hacked software into communicating with servers that they have control over to figure out which machines were infected and to deactivate the attack.