Iranian cyberattack targeted Israeli corona vaccine research

Last week’s cyber​​attacks on Israel targeted the research institutes working to develop vaccines for the coronavirus pandemic.

By World Israel News Staff

The cyberattacks that targeted Israeli websites and institutions last week included attacks on research institutes that are developing cures for the coronavirus, Channel 12 reported Monday.

Among the widely publicized attacks that occurred in Israel were also a number of unusual ones aimed at biological research institutes. Those attacks were not an attempt to obtain the information held by the institutes, but rather deliberate attempts to sabotage their development.

The report said the attempts were unsuccessful and no damage was done to these research institutes.

The Israel National Cyber Directorate said a server hosting Israeli websites was hacked last week in what was a suspected Iranian cyberattack. The sites’ homepages were replaced with an anti-Israel video and a message in broken Hebrew and English, saying, “the countdown of Israel destruction has begun since a long time ago.”

The video shows explosions destroying Tel Aviv while a wounded and bleeding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swims away from the burning city before switching to a view of Jerusalem with thousands of Muslims praying on the Temple Mount. The video closes with the message,“Israel won’t survive the next 25 years,” a message repeated by Iranian leaders for years.

Two days before the widespread attack on sites in Israel, The Washington Post reported that Israel was responsible for the cyberattack on an Iranian port a week earlier. The port traffic in Iran was reportedly stopped abruptly and inexplicably when the computers responsible for regulating the movement of ships, trucks and goods were suddenly disabled, creating huge congestion on the sailing routes and roads leading to the strategic facility.