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Israel-Hamas war
ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR DRAWS RUSSIAN, INDIAN 'HACKTIVISTS' INTO SHADOW CONFLICT
Escalation could lead to cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, experts say
A man takes part in a cybersecurity training session in Israel. © Reuters
AKINOBU IWASAWA, Nikkei staff writerOctober 27, 2023 03:51 JST | Middle East
CopyCopied
TOKYO -- The Israel-Hamas war has led to a widening conflict in cyberspace being
waged by dozens of hacker groups in a phenomenon with global ramifications for
critical infrastructure.
Since Hamas' Oct. 7 assault on Israel, groups of "hacktivists" have been
launching cyberattacks against Israel. They include Russia-aligned groups
Killnet and Anonymous Sudan, which had previously targeted Ukraine and nations
supporting it.
One of the targets was Israel's Red Alert app, which provides users with
real-time warnings of rocket attacks. According to Singaporean cybersecurity
company Group-IB, the hacker group AnonGhost exploited vulnerabilities in the
app to dispatch false notifications of an incoming nuclear bomb.
Iranian technology may be helping Hamas communicate. U.S. cybersecurity company
Recorded Future said on Oct. 19 that it "observed a likely Iran nexus" in the
infrastructure associated with a communication app used by Hamas.
Meanwhile, the hacker group Indian Cyber Force has launched cyberattacks against
Hamas-linked websites in support of Israel. In response, some anti-Israel hacker
groups have claimed attacks against Indian government websites.
Hacker groups Killnet and Anonymous Sudan claim they support the Palestinian
side. (Image from a media post)
There are also groups that have called for cyberattacks against the Japanese
government, reflecting the global nature of the digital threats.
There are now 90 hacktivist groups on the pro-Palestinian side and 23 groups
backing Israel, according to Indian cyberintelligence company FalconFeeds. The
most-favored method is the distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.
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On Oct. 8 and Oct. 9, Israel experienced a nearly threefold increase in online
traffic compared with the previous week, according to U.S. tech company
Cloudflare, while traffic doubled in the Palestinian territories.
Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post said its website had become inaccessible
for a few days due to cyberattacks. Nearly 100 websites experienced outages or
had content altered.
Some sites have limited access to prevent cyberattacks. The website of
state-owned utility Israel Electric Corp., which has been targeted by pro-Hamas
hackers, is no longer accessible from Japan.
"Browsing is possible from within Israel," said a representative at an Israel
Electric group company in Japan. "It appears that access from outside the
country is being restricted."
Cyberattacks targeting infrastructure are not new to the Middle East. In April
2020, water utility control systems in Israel were subject to a hack thought to
be linked to Iran, although Tehran denied involvement. In May that year, Iran's
Shahid Rajaee port experienced a system malfunction. It was believed that Israel
launched a retaliatory cyberattack, which Israel has denied.
Around 2010, Iran's nuclear development facilities were sabotaged by the Stuxnet
malware. The virus was codeveloped by the U.S. National Security Agency and
Israel, according to retired U.S. Gen. James Cartwright.
"If the conflict escalates, it may shift to large-scale cyberattacks that would
cause critical infrastructure to cease functioning for long periods, which would
impact national capabilities," said Mihoko Matsubara, chief cybersecurity
strategist at Japanese telecommunications group NTT.
Israel has launched many startups in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence,
so the Israel-Hamas war could have global implications for the high-tech sector.
Israel says it has mobilized 360,000 reservists for the fight against Hamas.
"Many of the reservists work in the high-tech industry, and this will worsen to
the global shortage of talent," said Matsubara.
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