Israeli Infrastructure Proves Too Strong For Anonymous 569
Mephistophocles writes "Ever since the beginning of Operation Pillar of Defense, hackers have been working overtime to strike a blow against the Israeli government's computer systems, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Sunday. No fewer than 44 million attacks have been recorded since the operation began five days ago — with nearly all of them failing, thanks to the recent strengthening of computer defense systems in Israel. Speaking at a special press conference at the Government Computing Center in Jerusalem about the cyber war against Israel that has accompanied Hamas's rocket attacks, Steinitz said that hackers 'are trying to disable the symbols of Israeli sovereignty, to enter web sites and install anti-Israel content, thus compromising information and data and damaging the government's ability to serve the public.' Most of the attacks, he said, were against government sites, like the Prime Minister's Office site, and security-related sites, such as that of the Home Front Command, the body charged with informing Israelis on how to protect themselves in the event of an attack. Out of those 44 million-plus attacks on government and defense related sites, said Steinitz, only one succeeded – partially. One site, which he did not name, was 'wobbly for a few minutes,' but quickly recovered. Even though the government has been successful in warding off hack attacks, Steinitz said that government sites were fully backed up and mirrored, meaning that they could be replaced by a duplicate site instantly if the original site were compromised."
Mossad wouldnt think twice about killing them (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Congratulations Israel (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:4, Insightful)
They won't use them, unless their very survival is at threat.
Leave Israel alone, and they'll leave you alone.
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:3, Insightful)
How do you know that?
How do you know that?
It sure looks like they are as blameworthy as the other side. No one wants to hear it but Israel with the West Bank/Gaza Strip and the USA in Iraq/Afghanistan need to remember how WW2 ended. With the Marshall plan. Anything short of a similar rebuilding program will only lead to what we have now.
Re:Israel is a Friend to the United States (Score:3, Insightful)
Israel is a Friend to the United States
What exactly has Israel ever done for the United States? They've stolen military secrets and threatened to sell them to the Russians. They've involved us in conflicts across the world that provide us no benefit whatsoever. And their oppression of the Palestinians has spurned terrorists on to attack the US.
And what do we get for this? They now threaten to attack Iran and fuck with the international oil trade. They bomb Gaza relentlessly even after the US paid for their Iron Dome defense system that has largely made Israeli cities immune from rocket fire. And their Prime Minister felt that it was okay to interfere in our Presidential elections.
Sorry, Israel is no friend of the US.
Re:Congratulations Israel (Score:5, Insightful)
Probably because they forced these people to live in walled off Areas and took long from farmers to build those walls.
Sure Israel has done this to defend itself, but it chose the wrong path. Something like the marshall plan and a single state would have been a far better solution. Now Hamas and the Israeli far right parties need each other. This is how they both keep the power they have.
Poorly Thought Out Response (Score:5, Insightful)
Anons everywhere are now thinking to themselves, "challenge accepted."
Re:Congratulations Israel (Score:1, Insightful)
Not this bigoted bullshit again. You think the oppression of Muslims is justified because their holy book is antisemitic. Guess what, the Christian Bible is just as bigoted. It justifies rape, murder, and slavery. It treats women less than dogs.
But most Christians are reasonable people. They don't follow their hate filled book. Nor do most Muslims.
Now Hamas is a hate filled group and their crimes are notorious. But that doesn't give you the right to use your bigotry to paint all Muslims as wanting to murder Jews. It is false. It is a lie. It is pure slander.
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Congratulations Israel (Score:5, Insightful)
Your comment is the kind of tit-for-tat that keeps this pointless conflict going.
I acknowledged the reason for doing this, and I can even see why someone would make that choice. That does not mean I believe it to be an ideal solution.
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't think their population would distance themselves from the crazies for a chance at a good life?
You don't think AC, McDonalds and TVs would pacify them?
I think that sort of easy life is attractive to everyone and only the shitty living conditions they people live in motivates them to behave as they do. They want someone to blame, they want someone to fight because they have nothing else.
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:5, Insightful)
They could be. All they need to do acknowledge that Israel is a legitimate nation. But you know, Hamas won't do that. They want to abolish Israel. Kind of hard for Israel to leave alone people who want to destroy it.
Re:Congratulations Israel (Score:5, Insightful)
The obvious thing would be to get down to the table and talk about it, but guess what, those who are supposed to find a solution for this are none others than the guys who benefit the most from it (Hamas on one side, and the right wing Israelis).
Acting like a bully won't make you look like you'r defending yourself for sure. And no matter how much of a threat those Palestinian missiles are, if each time your countryside gets hit by one, you answer with a couple of air raids and a dozen of children in the "Collateral Damage" list, you sure as hell can't expect the Palestinians (and by extension the rest of the Muslim world) to see as anything else other than a tyrant invader.
Re:Congratulations Israel (Score:5, Insightful)
So, who's going to break the cycle of violence? If you meet violence with violence, you get more violence. Someone will have to meet violence with kindness, and you don't seem to think the Palestinians can do it. So shouldn't you be encouraging Israel to do so?
The only other alternative is the complete elimination of the Palestinian people. But by operaghost's [slashdot.org] logic, that would justify Palestinian aggression against Israel.
The real solution is to acknowledge that neither Jewish nor Muslim states have any right to exist. The only just government is secular and democratic. Create a secular and democratic state where both israelis and palestinians have equal rights to vote. Then they can fight their wars in parliament, and terrorism will be a law enforcement issue.
Why is this surprising? (Score:5, Insightful)
Can you think of any other country in the world that is so completely and utterly beset by constant regional threats and actually has the resources to do something about it? If there is any country that is going to build proactive and pragmatic redundancy into their national IT infrastructure to protect it from external threats (and do it right), it's Israel. They have a lot more to lose by doing it wrong.
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:5, Insightful)
We are not talking about part of Israel, for better or worse. Not other nations.
How are the things that keep first world nations nice and peaceful fire? Do you really think AC is evil?
These people did nothing to squander a way their lead, they were not even thought of at that time. Most of them were born after the 1948 formation of the current state of Israel. They were born into this situation. You can't see how being born into poverty in an occupied area not even acknowledged as part of the greater State, would lead to this sort of thing?
Understanding on both sides would go a long way towards letting this issue be solved.
Re:Congratulations Israel (Score:3, Insightful)
And if the Israelis didn't use terrorism and forceful evictions to displace thousands of Palestinians from their lands, we wouldn't be at this point either.
What's the point in determining who shot first? We should rather concentrate on how to stop this madness, as the conflict has far outstretched the limits of reason.
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:2, Insightful)
If you're willing to accept "generic fast food restaurant" as a substitute for McDonalds, then they have all of those things in Gaza already.
The population has already worked around Hamas. They've built shopping malls, supermarkets and cafes. They've got infrastructure! It's not exactly New York, but nor is it a prison camp.
But there's a limit to what you can do, as a citizen, when your government consists of rocket-obsessed lunatics intent on fighting a jihad against the Jooooz at any cost. Particularly since no other country is really interested in helping you, if "help" means anything other than appeasing Hamas.
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:2, Insightful)
Leave Israel alone, and they'll leave you alone.
Israels actions of the last fifty years cast very strong doubt on the correctness of this statement.
Re:Not that surprising (Score:5, Insightful)
It would be interesting to know if the Iraelis are doing something the rest of the world doesn't know about
Unlikely, except for maybe a few isolated tricks.
But look at what they are doing in airport security and you quickly spot why they succeed where the rest of the western world struggles. They are focussed on actual, real, effective security measures instead of security theatre. They really want to prevent attacks, instead of giving everyone a warm and fuzzy feeling.
I work in IT security (yes, you can hire me). Most companies waste incredible amounts of money on replacing their current 5" steel front door with a new 7" steel front door, all the while ignoring that the back door is plywood and typically unlocked. Or they buy a shiny new firewall, but don't train anyone to configure and run it professionally (similarities to the TSA spending billions on body scanners but paying the people who monitor them minimum wage? Nah... never...).
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:5, Insightful)
Of course if Israel offered Abbas everything on the Jordanian side of the Green Line (including Jerusalem), Abbas'd be able to crush Hamas like a bug. But Israel's internal politics mean that anyone who proposes that, or anything remotely like that, gets crushed in the next election.
In other words Israel isn't asking for a simple recognition of it's right to exist, it's asking for recognition of it's conquest of East Jerusalem (plus probably some more territory). That's a whole different kettle of fish.
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:5, Insightful)
You don't think their population would distance themselves from the crazies for a chance at a good life?
Let's take Iran as an example. Most Iranians would like an excellent life. They defy their government and install satellite dishes and understand what global (secular) civilization has to offer. They would like a piece of that. Unfortunately due to the 'velyat a faqir' the Iranian Government treats its citizens as wards of the state (that is, everyone is treated as if they were an orphan or mentally insane) and the government strictly controls what they can wear, what they can say, where they can do, who they meet. Besides the security services (nb: you never want to go to Evin prison, ever) the government enlists radical thugs called Basiji to brutalize anyone not following the government line. The people of Iran wanted to install democracy in 2009 after fraudulent elections and protested despite the brutality of the Basiji, but the government ruthlessly put down the protests and, shamefully, the West did absolutely nothing to support the large democracy movement. Iran wants to export this Shia-based system worldwide, whether you want it or not.
Now in Gaza the situation is similar, but not exactly the same. Most Palestinian just want a decent life - although they are prepared to forego one in order to destroy Israel (since it is commanded to kill Jews, Christians and unbelievers in many many places in the Qur'an and Hadiths; so they are just being good Muslims and obeying their scriptures; the 'bad' muslims are the one who refuse Allah's commandments to kill unbelievers [fortunately, many muslims are good people and defy their faith in this way]). Hamas used to be buddies with Iran but they fell out over Syria. Hama follows the Sunni branch of Islam so is opposed to the Shia branch of Iran (usually that would mean they would be mortal enemies; but they put this aside temporarily to eliminate Israel before spreading the 'Caliphate' to the rest of the World).
The Israelis are exactly as you describe. They already have McDonalds, TVs and a very very modern society. Their government is influenced by, but not controlled by the crazies (Hasidim) that cause much of the 'settler' issues in the West Bank. Otherwise, Israel is a normal 'Western' society and responds in what most Slashdotters would consider a rational manner to irrational circumstances. That is, people who will make temporary truces but don't recognize the UN resolution that recognizes Israel in the western Palestine region of the former Ottoman Empire (the eastern part is now called 'Jordan' and can be considered the true 'Palestinians'). Note: Palestine has never (yet) been an actual country, it was a Roman name for a region of their empire which has remained as a region/province in additional empires throughout history. Note also the bulk of what are reported by the media as 'Palestinians' actually are relatively recent immigrants from Egypt or Sudan (within a couple of generations). Curiously: when tracing family history back many Israelis have more generations born in Palestine than 'Palestinians' - this is an 'open secret' (eg. Yasser Arafat was actually of Egyptian decent; and Gaza was Egyptian in antiquity before it passed to the Ottoman Empire).
See, this is all pretty complicated. They may want McDonalds and new stuff but there is so much history of the area that just about anyone can make any claim. Only those who are prepared to look forward will make progress (eg. the Israelis) and those who get hung up on history (Hamas & Iran) will resist progress and modernity and instead cling (with force) to obsolescent ideas.
Re:Congratulations Israel (Score:3, Insightful)
Dude,
Murdering Jews is enshrined in the Hamas charter in writing. The Fatah political headquarters prominently displays a large map of Palestine with no Isreal in the picture with a caption promising this is the dream. And they have never hidden the fact that their goal is the total removal of Isreal. If Isreal withdrew to the 67 borders and gave the Arabs everything they are asking the next day you would hear the Arabs pronouncing that they have scored a great victory on their way to removing Isreal. They would certainly have much closer artillery positions to work with. If somehow an Arab army was to overrun Isreal they would kill every man, women, and child. Do you think the Arabs would suddenly change their bloody mindset once they get the upper hand? Of course this won't happen becuase I am pretty sure if Isreal was in danger of being overrun they would nuke every capital and religious city in the middle east on their way out and I would not blame them in the least. Isreal may have problems like all other countries but look at the countries surrounding them and witness the in-fighting, religious inspired violence, and overt hostility to anyone who doesn't tow their ideological line.
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:5, Insightful)
For a long time Islamic civilization was well ahead of the barbarous West. The principle of 'ijtihad' allowed all sorts of interesting questions to be debated and examined. However, the Caliphs at that time in Baghdad perceived this as a threat to their rule and squashed all inquiry by force. That unquestioning of Islam continues to this day, and Muslims also attempt to extend this political decision to Westerners too (eg. the moves in the UN to prohibit Free Speech by not being able to question any religion). It is this suppression of Free Speech and enquiry that allowed the West to leapfrog ahead of the more advanced Islamic cultures.
It is interesting to note that a similar situation occurred with China. China was far ahead of the West but an emperor decided that all the strange things and ideas his fleets were bringing back were a bad idea and China turned inward. Meanwhile, the chaotic factions of the West strove to out-compete each other and made massive progress in all areas (ideological, social, technical, medical, scientific, political).
The ability to question and overturn orthodoxy is incredibly important for progress. This is why Free Speech must be protected. Especially speech that challenges conventional views. Ideas that make 'normal' people uncomfortable should not be suppressed (only overt hate speech should be suppressed, but this is very a narrow area). Progress is not possible without it - so watch out America and Europe, your 'Political Correctness' could well get you eclipsed just as the Muslim and Chinese cultures were at one point. As long as a society has Free Speech and a Free Press then it has a considerable competitive advantage over those that don't. eg. until China opens up its thinking it will *always* lag behind the West in innovation, no matter how much tech it steals; the Muslim world will remain stuck at that point in time in which the Caliph closed free speech as long as violence and coercion are used to prevent new ideas that approach blasphemy.
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:1, Insightful)
These people did nothing to squander a way their lead, they were not even thought of at that time. Most of them were born after the 1948 formation of the current state of Israel.
I am talking about the Middle East as a whole. Israel surely isn't to blame for Saudi Arabia, Iran etc. having dickheads in positions of power.
That works both ways, the Arabs aren't to blame for Israel having ultra wing nationalist bozos for leaders.
You can't see how being born into poverty in an occupied area not even acknowledged as part of the greater State, would lead to this sort of thing?
I can see that. They ought to blame their ancestors, who were unwilling to get 80 % of the former BMfP. They wanted it all, they waged multiple wars of aggression to that end, they failed at that and now their lives suck. Well, tough luck, cowboy.
Yeah right and thus Palestinian Arabs deserve living in an apartheid state, being treated like lower forms of life and have their houses bulldozed and their land confiscated whenever Israeli 'settler' decide they need to build a new colony? Do you have any idea who you sound like?
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:4, Insightful)
Nearly all of the well known terrorists figureheads have had very good lives. All of the 9/11 hijackers had college degrees. The current head of Al-Qaeda is a surgeon. Osama Bin Laden was a multi-millionaire. Azzam the American was born in Berkly, California, and left for the middle east in his 20's. Anwar al-Awlaki was providing support for known terrorists while living as a citizen of the US. Nidal Malik Hasan was an Army Major when he shouted allahuakbar and shot people up.
Nearly all of them have lived in the US legitimately, as well as numerous parts of Europe. Not only have they had a chance at a good life, they lived a good life.
I somehow doubt AC, McDonalds, and TV's would pacify them.