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."
Israel is a Friend to the United States (Score:0, Interesting)
Lies (Score:2, Interesting)
Well, first of all, the guy's a liar. Besides his statistics being absurd beyond the pale, he has every incentive to hide the truth, as it feeds the well-oiled Israeli propaganda machine -- and we would do the same thing, as would any marginally-competent intelligence division.
More importantly, though, the simple fact is that Anon isn't what it used to be. Many of the power-hitters have moved on to bigger and better things -- things that pay real money. The few with talent that are still around are often loathe to engage state-funded entities in what has a high probability for inviting the kind of attention that even Anon doesn't want. That whole mess over there is a giant shitpile, and nobody with two neurons to rub together wants to touch it with a 29 1/2 foot pole.
That leaves the script kiddies, and since we've already determined that the intelligence department at play is at least marginally-competent, they aren't going to be wildly successful.
Re:Israel has nuclear weapons. (Score:3, Interesting)
You know, if the Middle East suddenly magically disappeared, I wouldn't give a damn. Hell, I'd probably celebrate. No more phantasmagoric indoctrination for future generations? Yay for that!
But I'd keep Israel. They do useful stuff, such as new Intel microarchitectures, and ICQ, and PHP...OK, scratch the last two. But at least they export tangibly beneficial stuff and not armies of loonies.
Re:Heh (Score:4, Interesting)
The "cyber attacks" against Israel are about as impressive as Palestinian missile technology.
Care to elaborate on this? I'm quite impressed by their homebrewed rockets. Far more effective than anything you or I could conjure up, for sure. They're extremely effective as a psychological weapon as well. Even if they never hit their target, they're still causing damage to the enemy.
Not that surprising (Score:5, Interesting)
When your defenses are tested on a regular and ongoing basis, they become very good. It's not like the attacks from Anonymous were the first nor will they be the last. Kudos to the people who created and maintain these systems.
It would be interesting to know if the Iraelis are doing something the rest of the world doesn't know about (chances are they wouldn't tell us but who could blame them?) or are just rigorously implementing standard computer and network security measures.
Cheers,
Dave
Those Who Forget History ... (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh fuck right off. The Palestinian leaders were acting like arseholes and trying to kill Jews just for being Jewish before the state of Israel even existed [wikipedia.org]. Haj Amin al-Husseini who was the Grand Mufti (religious leader) of the Palestinians (of Jerusalem to be precise) during the 1940s was buddies with notable people like Hitler, Himmler, and anyone who promised to find a gas chamber for every Jew. He actively encouraged the Germans, and worked to dissuade countries from accepting German Jewish refuges forcing them to return to Germany. ALL BEFORE A JEWISH STATE EXISTED, mother fucker. So don't try to tell me that the Jews started anything.
The Jews were the ones who promised no change in personal property or land or status would take place when Israel was formed, that the status quo shouldn't change, meanwhile their leader(s) and other Arab countries told the Palestinians to get out of the way and to go to the refugee camps while they "pushed the Jews into the sea" with their anti Semitic Arab brotherhood. Now they're sore losers and even the other Arab countries around there won't let them into their own countries because they have so many trouble makers.
Don't you know Egypt has a big fucking wall set up between them and Palestine too? And when the Palestinians knocked part of it down, the Egyptian army pushed them back in a repaired it. Notice the Muslim Brotherhood haven't opened up the border with Gaza any more than Israel since they were elected?
So just shut the fuck up until you learn to think on your own instead of running with the crowd in their nouveau cause du jour which they know nothing about, but will surely fuck some innocent people over to make themselves feel like they have a cause.
I don't give a rat's ass what anyone is. But dirt bags who hide in civilian neighbourhoods and continually fire rockets into other civilian neighbourhoods while screaming how they are so just and hard done by deserve what they get. And the people who don't turn them in deserve it too. You ever think that if these shit bags had ever once tried to be civil there wouldn't be any war there. You know there are a lot of Arabs who live in Israel, vote and even sit in parliament. Jews in the Arab countries have to keep their heads down and not 'rise above themselves'. Get a real education on the subject.
Re:Congratulations Israel (Score:2, Interesting)
1) Allow suicide bombers to kill at will.
2) Become subjects of the benevolent Palestinian people.
3) Utterly destroy the Palestinian people.
4) Create a wall.
5) ?
So what's your plan? Because they seem to have already chosen the plan most acceptable to everyone involved. (besides you of course).
Re:Why is this surprising? (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe, but having hung out with people with a military background, I can vouch that there is a fairly deep-set appreciation for security that is engendered within the armed forces. Now, consider the fact that all Israeli citizens serve in the military - male and female. I think that this has a big cultural impact.
Also, factor in that the whole country is about the size of New Jersey - you're not far from a potential battleground anywhere you go. Every adult probably knows somebody who witnessed an act of terrorism firsthand - they were having incidents almost daily a decade ago. So, you get the under siege mentality as well. Compare US border security with Israeli border security and you'll see a stark contrast - you might as well compare a US state line to the Berlin wall.
The Israelis that I've met over the years don't really strike me as being anti-arabic or anything. In fact, it seems like they try to foster relationships where they can, since every so often they have to go on active duty and when you're patrolling some Palestinian neighborhood it doesn't hurt to be on good terms.
Re:Congratulations Israel (Score:4, Interesting)
Yo Dude,
There's a PA Mufti who seems to disagree with you; he takes this Gharqad tree business literally (check out the last sentence of his).
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Terrorism-+Obstacle+to+Peace/Palestinian_incitement/PA_Mufti_encourages_killing_Jews_9-Jan-2012.htm?DisplayMode=print [mfa.gov.il]
So, Dude, how about you ring up Mr. Mufti and 'splain the whole metaphor thing to him, like? Or text him, whatever. And see if he can sync it all up with Hamas so they're on the same page. Kewl. KThx Dude.