Israeli hackers said they brought down the websites of the Saudi Stock Exchange and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange this week in the latest episode of an ongoing cyber-battle between Israeli and anti-Israeli hackers.
The Israeli hackers, who call themselves IDF-Team, said in a post on the PasteBin website that the Jan. 17 attacks were in retaliation for the cyber attack the previous day on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and El Al website, adding that “This is only the beginning.” The Israeli hackers also threatened to paralyze websites for up to a month if attacks on Israeli sites continue.
On Jan. 16, El Al Israel Airlines took down its website after Saudi hacker OxOmar warned it would be targeted by allied pro-Palestinian hackers, a person close to the company said. The source was not authorized to speak to the media and requested anonymity.
The company said in a statement that it was taking security measures to protect the website and that disruptions on the site were to be expected.
Orna Goren, a spokeswoman for the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, said the site was overwhelmed by electronic requests that slowed it down dramatically but it was still operating. Trading was not affected, she said.
OxOmar said he would continue to attack Israeli websites until Israeli officials ask for forgiveness from the people of Gaza for “genocide.”
Also on Jan. 17, the pro-Israel hacker Hannibal published a list of email addresses and Facebook passwords for some 30,000 users from Arab countries, the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported. He also claimed to have information to allow access to 10 million Iranian and Saudi bank accounts.
Saudi hackers used the PasteBin website last week to publish the credit card information of thousands of Israelis.
Meanwhile, a different group of Israeli hackers posted the details of email accounts belonging to dozens of Saudi medical students. — jta & ap