Hackers (illustrative)
Hackers (illustrative)Israel news photo: Flash 90


Palestinian Authority hackers briefly managed to pull down a few sites in Israel Wednesday night in the ongoing cyberwar launched by Iran and anti-Israel Arabs.

Among the sites that fell prey to attacks were the home pages of El Al Airlines, the Dan Bus Company, the Israel Festival, Israel's CinemaTek and Ha'aretz newspaper. The home pages were replaced with anti-Israel and anti-Semitic slogans such as "Free Palestine, Death to Israel," "Jew = Nazi" and a promise that "4 more Gilad Shalits will be abducted."  

The latter hacker remark is a reference to IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, kidnapped by Hamas-allied terrorists in a cross-border raid from Gaza in June 2006, who was returned to his family in October 2011 in an exchange deal that cost Israel 1,027 Palestinian Authority terrorist prisoners.

All of the sites were restored within the hour.

It was the second time that El Al's site has been breached. The airline's website, which was hacked with the information site of the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) earlier this month, was not damaged in either attack.

Earlier in the day, attempts were made against the websites of Sheba Hospital at Tel HaShomer Medical Center and Assuta Medical Center – but both failed, and no patient information was compromised.

The sites, which represent two of the largest medical complexes in central Israel, were down for maintenance throughout the morning.

Last week Saudi hackers aimed at the website of Rabbi David Grossman's 'Migdal Or' organization as well.

The “Saudi hacker” – also known as “OxOmar” – was quoted in Arabic media over the weekend as threatening to “finish Israel electronically.” The hacker exposed thousands of Israeli credit card account details earlier this month.

Israel's National Cyber Command (NCC) and the Counter Terror Bureau (CTB) launched the nation's first official cyber emergency drill, dubbed “Lights Out,” also on Wednesday, to train cyber security personnel in dealing with the latest form of warfare.