The cyberattack which affected dozens of computers in two Israeli hospitals last week was the work of a Palestinian Arab, according to an investigation by IT security company ESET.
ESET found that the two hospitals may not have been the targets of the cyberattacks, and that other bodies may also have been affected. According to the IT company, the attack was designed to steal information, and was not a ransomware attack like the massive cyberattacks which have affected countries in Europe recently.
The stolen information was sent to a domain called 'Palestineop.com.' Cyberattacks directed against Israel which originate from domains which include 'Palestine' in their names are usually carried out by cyber-criminals affiliated which groups like the Hamas terrorist organization or the Anonymous movement.
The code contains a caption - a username belonging to a company website from Dubai, a forum in Arabic for malware developers complete with instructions for using code to carry out hacking and malware attacks. According to ESET investigators, a user named rad12345, who claims to be a Palestinian Arab, is the creator of the malware code used in last week's cyberattack.
They noted that the same malware was also found to have been used in cyberattacks on Arab targets in the Palestinian Authority as well, and that the attacks may have been criminal in nature and not politically motivated.