Pro-Palestinian hackers attack Israeli websites

The fighting between the Palestinians and Israelis has expanded into the internet battle field yesterday, with 700 Israeli web domains being hacked by worms and viruses planted by hackers sympathetic to the Palestinians. The group call themselves "Team-Evil" and claim to be based out of Morocco. They have been spreading their 'evil' since 2004.

A range of different Web sites were targeted by the group, including Web sites of banks, medical centers, car manufacturers and pension funds. Well-known companies and organizations, including Bank Hapoalim, the Rambam Medical Center, Bank Otsar Ha-Hayal, BMW Israel, Subaru Israel and Citr en Israel, real estate company Tarbut-Hadiur and the Jump fashion Web site all found their Web sites shut down and replaced by the message: "Hacked by Team-Evil Arab hackers u KILL palestin people we KILL Israel servers".

The group, Team-Evil, has hit Israeli targets before. In April, they took credit for hacking into the Web sites of the Israel Institute for Biological Research and McDonalds Israel. The group, which contains at least six members, claims to be based in Morocco and their signature began appearing in 2004 in attacks focusing on US government Web sites. Even in the anti-American attacks, the messages left by Team-Evil left an anti-Israel message.

Experts said that it was likely that the group gained the ability to hack the Web sites before the IDF's incursion but was now using the event as an excuse to launch their attack. source

So we have a new battle front in war these days and the attacks are referred to as "hacktivism" and "cyberterrorism", and "cyberwar".

Some scholars have adopted the term "hacktivism" to describe the phenomenon and to differentiate it from "cyberterrorism," in which terror groups or individuals use the Internet to carry out terror attacks such as disrupting power grids, shutting down phone service or taking control of an airplane. "Cyberterror" attacks are food for popular concern, but no successful cyberterror attacks have been documented.

Instead, hackers' tactics have focused on site defacements, system penetrations, disinformation campaigns and have threatened the possible use of Trojan horses. MORE