Attack on billboards and university. Hamas carries out cyberattacks
8:57 AM EDT, October 17, 2023
The war between Israel and Hamas also continues on the cybersecurity front. In the past few days, Islamic fundamentalists have committed two major breaches in the IT systems within Tel Aviv. One of the targets were billboards displaying ads, and the other was a local university.
Hamas continues to operate against Israel, not just flooding social media with brutal content, but also carrying out hacker attacks. Check Point, a company that monitors cybercriminal activity, records many security breaches, which include destroying websites or DDoS attacks. According to her information, Israel has currently managed to repel cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, such as waterworks. It is unknown how long this state can be maintained, as more than 40 hacker groups currently declare that they are conducting or trying to conduct cyberattacks on various Israeli institutions.
Attack on billboards
Undeniably, this is one of the less harmful things that Hamas has instigated, but it's worth noting the potential for sowing propaganda in this way. Last Thursday (October 12th) two large billboards were hacked, on which hackers displayed anti-Israeli content and content in favor of the Hamas narrative for a few minutes.
The recordings mainly included frames showing the shelled and destroyed Israeli flag, as well as fragments of films shot in the Gaza Strip. According to cybersecurity experts, this action was intended to intimidate the local population to prove that Hamas can infiltrate anywhere in Israel.
Attack on the university
The largest cyber attack to date was carried out on Ono Academic College located near Tel Aviv. On Monday (October 16), a group of hackers claiming to be from Jordan penetrated the college's internal system and published approximately 250,000 pieces of data related to staff, students, and graduates of the college on Telegram. As a consequence, the school shut down all of its systems.
The university spokesperson announced that it is working closely with the national cyber attack agency and the body responsible for privacy protection. The university's systems are expected to be fully restored within a few days.
