Israel warns of cyber attacks ahead of Iran’s Quds Day

The annual attacks, #OPJerusalem, are expected to take place this year in close proximity to May 7.

By Aryeh Savir, TPS

Israeli sites should be prepared for cyber attacks ahead of Iran’s Quds Day and the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan, Israel’s National Cyber Directorate warned.

The Directorate issued an advisory ahead of Iran’s Quds Day and the end of Ramadan, and in close proximity to Israel’s Jerusalem Day, about attempts by anti-Israel elements to carry out coordinated activities in cyberspace against Israel.

The annual attacks, #OPJerusalem, are expected to take place this year in close proximity to May 7, with the aim of trying to spread propaganda messages through website vandalism and distribution of text messages, as well as attacks designed to generate a public resonance.

OpIsrael is the name of an annual coordinated cyber-attack against the Israeli government and private websites created with the stated goal of “erasing Israel from the internet.”

The most common vectors of attack are website defacements and denial-of-service (DoS), but there are also application attacks and data dumps.

In previous years, thousands of websites in Israel were simultaneously vandalized by attacking the web hosting company. It is estimated that this year’s will target not only websites but will also attempt to damage information systems of Israeli organizations.

Israel has an advanced cyber-security apparatus and fends off thousands of cyber attacks on a daily basis.