'Hacks carried out through local computers'

Security company chairman says hacker infiltrated Israeli computers for attacks, announces new defenses.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
keyboard computer Internet cyber warfare 311 (photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
keyboard computer Internet cyber warfare 311
(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
"The recent spate of cyber attacks against Israel have been carried out through local computers," Army Radio quoted Check Point company chairman Gil Shwed as saying Tuesday. He added that his company has developed an anti-bot that will fight against such breaches.
Saudi hackers published personal information of thousands of Israelis, including credit card numbers and names. In the most recent attack, the hackers attacked the websites of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and El Al, taking them offline.
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Shwed said that the attacks were "executed through thousands of computers, if not tens of thousands- almost half of which are in Israel," Army Radio reported.
He explained that the hacker used a "bot" to take control of personal computers in Israel. "Through this bot, that's not inside your computer, he can use your system without your knowledge to attack others. The bots hide themselves well," he said, "but [Check Point] has developed the technology to track them.
Shwed stated that a multi-pronged cyber war has been declared against Israel. "It is our belief that there has been a general, large-scale attack against Israel, and at the same time a subtle, sophisticated one as well. In our bid to fight against the large attack, we missed the smaller one, and that's how they managed to bypass our security systems."
The Saudi hacking attacks prompted responses from high echelons of the Israeli political system. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Saturday that he considers hacking similar to terrorism. "Breaches of Israel’s cyberspace are a breach of sovereignty similar to terrorism and should be treated as such," he said.
The hacker spokesman, going by the codename 0xOmar, said Monday: “I’ll hack Israeli servers and publish their data, I’ll publish credit cards. Imagine every possible cyber attack, I’ll do it. There is no end for it, but if Israeli authorities ask for apologize for their genocide in Palestine and Gaza, I’ll reduce attacks.”
Yaakov Lappin contributed to this report.