Cyberattacks targeting Israel’s digital systems have indeed increased since the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023. Several cybersecurity incidents have been reported in the wake of these events.
According to Wall Street Journal, hackers have breached Israel’s smart billboards. Posting pro-Hamas messages and images as part of a series of cyberattacks targeting Israel’s digital systems. Additionally, Israelis are reportedly receiving threatening text messages on their phones and WhatsApp messages from numbers in Yemen and Afghanistan. Some opportunistic individuals are also sending cryptocurrency scams disguised as pro-Israel aid requests.
Cyberattacks Targeting Israel’s Critical Websites
As per findings by Cloudflare Systems in their report (Cyberattacks in the Israel-Hamas war), multiple cyberattacks targeting Israel’s websites where identified. They successfully defended against several Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks that aimed to disrupt websites vital for providing information and alerts to civilians about rocket attacks.
Since the attack on October 7, 2023, newspaper and media websites have become the primary targets of DDoS attacks in Israel. Comprising 56% of all such attacks against Israeli websites. This increase in cyberattacks is occurring in conjunction with ground warfare. And is undermining the availability of crucial information for civilians.
Cyberattacks on Israel’s Industrial Systems
Since October 7, 2023, there has been an increase in cyberattacks targeting Israel’s industrial systems. Originating from Iran, Syria, and the pro-Russia hacktivist group Killnet, as reported by Yossi Appleboum, Sepio CEO, to Wall Street Journal (Israel Sees Cyber Incursions Across Digital Systems).
Earlier this year the Microsoft Digital Defense Report 2023 has identified Storm-1133, a hacking group associated with Hamas, for targeting Israeli energy and telecommunications infrastructure. According to Microsoft’s research, this group has been responsible for delivering various malicious payloads, including backdoors and phishing.
These cyberattacks targeting Israel’s industrial systems underscore the critical importance of physical layer visibility and robust cybersecurity defense measures to safeguard critical infrastructure and sensitive data.
Sepio’s Asset Risk Management Platform
Sepio is the only company in the world that utilizes the physical layer. It provides unique asset visibility and an integrated asset risk factor (ARF) score. Sepio harnesses the entire asset security system for actionable visibility and limitless scalability. Which is crucial for effective asset risk management and cybersecurity.
In addition to providing deep physical layer visibility, Sepio offers a robust policy enforcement system that suggests best practice policies and enables administrators to set strict or specific rules for system enforcement. These features support the implementation of a zero trust hardware approach. If a device breaches the established policy, Sepio platform promptly starts a mitigation process, immediately blocking unauthorized or rogue hardware access.