Several major Israeli universities hit with cyberattacks: Reports
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Israeli media say numerous major Israeli universities were hit with cyberattacks that paralyzed their websites.
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This Feb 23, 2019, file photo shows the inside of a computer in Jersey City, N.J (AP Photo/Jenny Kane)
The websites of several major Israeli universities were hit with a cyberattack by a group of hackers going by the name Anonymous Sudan, the Israeli i24News website reported Tuesday.
According to the website, the affected universities include the Tel Aviv University, the Hebrew University of Al-Quds, the Ben-Gurion University of Al-Naqab, the Haifa University, the Weizmann Institute of Science, the Open University of Israel, and the Reichman University.
The websites of the universities have been paralyzed, rendering them inaccessible.
Israeli media reported that Sudan Anonymous posted a statement on Telegram specifying the affected universities. "Infrastructure: Universities, the education sector in Israel was abandoned due to what they did in Palestine. This is not the main attack that will take place on the impending 7th of April."
US cybersecurity company Radware said large-scale cyber attacks against the Israeli occupation occur every year on April 7, an occurrence that has been ongoing for the past decade. The company revealed that it identified attacks on the websites of hospitals, newspapers, and even oil refineries.
The Institute of Applied Research in Haifa was subjected to a cyber attack, which blocked the institute's website, according to the Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology.
i24News reported that the attackers were demanding a ransom in exchange for the release of data obtained via ransomware.
The Walla! news website reported the group carried out the attack using the DarkBit ransomware strain, saying it was demanding 70 bitcoins in exchange for keeping the obtained information secret.
Technion officials said the computer systems were being examined, and they had been preemptively disconnected. "We are examining the situation, and an update will come out soon."
The Israeli Srugim website explained that the sites were subjected to a DDoS or DoS attack, which denies the website of service by flooding it with a surplus of users, causing its servers to crash. The site said this type of attack was relatively simple and easy to fix compared with other attacks.
Srugim added that there were fears that with the passage of days of Ramadan, occupied Palestine will see increasing attempts to carry out more serious attacks, which may also include piracy and long-term damage to websites and infrastructure.
The Israeli occupation's "State Comptroller", Matanyahu Englman, revealed in December that the occupation had several "significant gaps" in its infrastructure and cybersecurity.
Reportedly, the Israeli occupation's military, water and transportation networks and tax system are all flawed, with various lackluster defenses against cyberattacks, Englman said, as reported by Israeli Channel 14.
The report said that there was an inadequate system to provide protection for the Israeli occupation forces' cyber systems.
The audit found that the Israeli occupation's cybersecurity policy had not been updated since April 2015, a time that saw technologies undergoing various changes and upgrades, meaning the IOF's security was outdated by seven years.
