'Anonymous' hackers threaten Israel with cyber-terrorism

Group of anti-Israel hackers calls on international band of "cyber warriors" to attack Israeli websites on Monday.

By NIV ELIS
Man with computer 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Thomas Peter)
Man with computer 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Thomas Peter)
A group of anti-Israel hackers calling themselves “Anonymous Operation Israel” has called on “cyber warriors from across the planet” to attack Israel online on April 7th.
“On April 7, 2014, we call upon our brothers and sisters to hack, deface, hijack, database leak, admin takeover, and DNS terminate the Israeli Cyberspace by any means necessary,” the group said in a YouTube video posted on April 2.
It is not the group’s first foray into cyber warfare against the Jewish State.
On the same date last year, Anonymous attempted to disrupt Israeli websites, including that of Yad Vashem, the Prime Minister’s Office, and the Israel Defense Forces website, with limited success.
“As of midday, Israeli government websites are accessible to the public, as they were for the entire weekend,” the Finance Ministry reported at the time.
The official site of the Ministry of Education appeared to have been affected, but the statement issued by the Treasury said the Education Ministry’s website had not been accessible during the weekend due a “technical fault,” and it was up and running that same afternoon.
In March, Hamas supporters hacked into a defense website and sent journalists e-mails and text messages on the tenth anniversary of Hamas founder Sheikh Yassin’s assassination.
In January, cyber hackers broke into and temporarily took over 15 Defense Ministry computers, including one belonging to Israel’s Civil Administration.
Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report.