The Jerusalem Post Web site came under virtual attack at the hands of activists in countries around the world Monday. Following the news of fatal clashes between the IDF and foreign activists aboard the flotilla of ships on their way to the Gaza Strip early Monday morning, thousands of abusive e-mails were sent to newspaper staff members and general department addresses in an attempt to crash the system.
The spam filter, used to separate junk mail and protect the network from viruses, showed 4,000 e-mails received in a matter of seconds. There were also attempts to hack the firewall, which can flood the network with useless data and allow entry to the newspaper’s online operating system.
RELATED:Israel faces int'l fury over flotillaNavy commandos: 'They came for war'#FreeHasbaraAccording to the latest firewall data, there was an approximately 50 percent jump in attempts to bypass it.
This is not the first time IDF activity has resulted in a virtual attack on the
Post, or the first time pro-Palestinian cyber crime has surfaced as a reaction to military activity. The
Jewish Chronicle in London was hacked by a group calling itself the “Palestinian Mujaheeds” earlier this year, and in 2006 more than 750 Israeli Web sites were hacked with the message “You’re killing Palestinians, we’re killing servers.”
Technical staff were blocking the attacks and working with the relevant authorities to identify and warn others.