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

Hackers from several countries around the world tried to attack the website of the Jewish Agency this past weekend.

As of Friday, the website was targeted by attackers from Russia, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Brazil and Austria, among others.

The continued attacks brought down the site, causing it to be available intermittently and endangering the information stored on it.

Dov Yahav, chief information officer of the Jewish Agency, eventually decided to block the Corporate Web Server for external users, thus preventing possible damage.

The Jewish Agency said on Monday that the site has returned to normal and that it would be using improved safeguarding methods to protect it.

Israelis and Israeli websites have been the target of hackers several times in recent months.

In January, a person who claimed to be a Saudi hacker published the credit card information of some 400,000 Israelis. It was later revealed that the number of charge card accounts that had been hacked is about 15,000.

Israeli hackers later “returned the favor” by publishing a list containing the names and credit card details of citizens of Saudi Arabia.

The websites of Yeshiva Machon Meir, the Israel Fire Services, El Al and the Haaretz newspaper were among those attacked by Arab hackers.