Cyberattacks strike Israel Post, irrigation systems
A wave of cyber attacks have hit Israeli targets, including Israel Post, and irrigation systems, as well as airline, transportation, and university websites
The past week has seen a wave of significant cyber attacks against both the Israel Post as well as irrigation systems in the North of Israel.
The Israel Postal Company detected and prevented a cyber attack from a "hostile party" targeting their computer servers. The company shut down part of its computer systems in response to the attack on Wednesday evening. Most of the disabled services are still not active. The attack and shutdown did not affect Israel Post's banking services, which operate on a completely separate system.
"This is a skilled person who planned a significant attack against the Israel Post," the company said. "Since this is a government company that is defined as an essential body, the national cyber directorate has come to the company's aid."
The hack was detected and stopped at an early stage, and it is believed that it didn't cause any damage or that any information was leaked.
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Despite this, as a preventive measure, some of the company's systems were proactively shut down, and services such as package delivery, courier ordering, customs payment, and some of the payment services for government bodies and other bodies were suspended. It was also not possible to collect packages from delivery points in businesses. The services are expected to return to activity in the coming days.
A cyber attack on Friday also disabled the irrigation systems of at least ten farmers in the Hula Valley, the Jordan Valley and other parts of the country, halting scheduled watering. The message "You Have been hacked, Down with Israel" appeared on the water controllers. The National Cyber Directorate and the Ministry of Agriculture announced that irrigation activities have since resumed.
Unitronics, the Israeli company that manufactures the hacked water controllers, said: "The company's controllers integrated into the systems attacked allow for rapid recovery. We acted quickly to assist customers and ensure a swift resolution to the incident. All of the company's controllers include built-in cyber protection layers, at different levels and in accordance with the needs of customers.”
The National Cyber Directorate and the Ministry of Agriculture stated they are “investigating the cases due to the suspicion that this is a cyber attack."
In addition to the cyber attack on the irrigation systems and the Israel Post, in recent days, a hacker group called "Anonymous Sudan" hacked into the websites of universities, airlines, Israel Railways, and other websites as part “OPIsrael,” the cyber campaign waged against Israel annually during April since 2013.
Last week, the National Cyber Directorate issued a warning against increasing efforts to carry out cyber attacks against Israel as part of the month of Ramadan and ahead of the "Iranian Jerusalem Day" which will be celebrated on April 14.
