The war between Israel and Hamas is also unleashed in the virtual world, with cyberattacks increasing since the ground attack of October 7. Israeli government or media sites, as well as energy or defense groups, have been targeted by this type of attack, but without data theft or operational paralysis, experts point out.
“Groups of hackivists mobilized until now on the war in Ukraine have reoriented themselves on this conflict for a week, with the objective of finding victims, including Western companies, including French ones. But these operations are only communication, not cyberwar,” describes the expert from a large cybersecurity company.
“Denial of service attacks”
“As in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the number of cyberattacks has increased. But we cannot talk about cyberwar: it is above all a question of denial of service attacks (DDOS) », a minor intentional congestion which makes a website inaccessible for a few hours, explains François Deruty, director of intelligence at the cybersecurity company Sekoia.
“Attacks against Israeli websites, which are very well protected, are generally of the denial of service type,” confirms Mohammed Boumediane, head of the cybersecurity company Ziwit. According to him, “other big attacks could take place, because thousands of brute force attacks are underway”. This process consists of testing password combinations, particularly for denial of service attacks.
Another technique of these “hacktivists”: “defaced” sites. The home page is replaced by a black screen or a propaganda message.
Pro-Palestinian Russian hackers and pro-Israeli Indian hackers
“Among the attackers are foreign groups: pro-Palestinian Russian hackers and pro-Israeli Indian hackers,” adds François Deruty of Sekoia. Israeli websites have been victims of the Russian-speaking group Anonymous Sudan, which supports Hamas, as well as the Russian group Killnet. In addition, less visible Iranian groups quietly support attacks against Israel, he believes.
On the other hand, Indian groups have attacked Palestinian websites. This is a consequence of the diplomatic ties between India and Israel, analyzes the Sekoia expert, as well as the relationship between Indian groups and Israeli start-ups which are their suppliers.