A tit-for-tat cyberwar between Israelis and Arabs, a new twist on an age-old conflict, has so far involved nuisance credit-card hacks and denial-of-service attacks on Web sites, but could easily take a deadly turn if it escalates.
That’s the warning of a top technology consultant after the anti-Israel hackers kicked it up a notch, taking on the national airline, a major bank and the Tel Aviv stock exchange in their bid to cause havoc in the Jewish state.
The denial-of-service attacks hit the stock exchange, El Al Israel Airlines and the First International Bank of Israel as well as two subsidiaries, Massad and Otzar Hahayal on Monday, MSNBC reported.
Vehicular Mayhem
“As things become more connected, cars and planes could be hacked as well [as computers] resulting in potential damage that could make 9/11 look trivial by comparison,” said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. “Think of a large number of connected cars with active accident avoidance suddenly turning right and stopping on a freeway, for instance.
“I expect these activities will increasingly become deadly as systems become more connected and the attacking groups move more sharply toward creating terror.”
Monday’s DoS attack comes on the heels of the Jan. 3 dumping of thousands of credit card numbers of Israeli citizens on a popular sports site. Saudi Arabian hackers, known as Group XP, believed to be tied to the international hacker group Anonymous, took responsibility for that attack and warned of more.
Shortly after that, a hacker who uses the nom de guerre oxOmar, believed to be a 19-year-old Saudi, posted credit card data of 6,000 thousand Israelis online.
The hacks were an embarrassment for a country known for its technological prowess — as well as its penchant for revenge. But the retaliation seemed to come from a non-government source. A group of Israeli…
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