Israel faces millions of hacking attempts
Since the conflict with Gaza began, the Israeli government has blocked more than 44 million hacking attempts on government web sites.
An Israeli soldier runs past a row of military jeeps parked on the side of the road near the border with the Gaza Strip November 18. Since the conflict with Gaza began, the Israeli government has faced millions of hacking attempts.
Amir Cohen/Reuters
Jerusalem
More than 44 million hacking attempts have been made on聽聽web sites since Wednesday when聽聽began its聽聽air strikes, the government said on Sunday.
Finance Minister聽聽said just one hacking attempt was successful on a site he did not want to name, but it was up and running after 10 minutes of downtime.
Typically, there are a few hundred hacking attempts a day on Israeli sites, the ministry said.
Defence-related sites and those of聽's prime minister, president and聽聽have been targeted.
A ministry spokesman said while the attacks have come from around the world, most have been from聽聽and the Palestinian territories.
"The ministry's computer division will continue to block the millions of cyber attacks," Steinitz said. "We are enjoying the fruits of our investment in recent years in developing computerised defence systems."
Steinitz has instructed his ministry to operate in emergency mode to counter attempts to undermine government sites.
Both sides in the聽聽conflict, but particularly聽, are embracing the social media as one of their tools of warfare. The聽聽has established a presence on nearly every platform available while Palestinian militants are active on Twitter.
Last month, U.S. Defence Secretary聽聽said cyberspace is the battlefield of the future, with attackers already going after banks and other financial systems. U.S. banks have been under sustained attack by suspected Iranian hackers thought to be responding to economic sanctions aimed at forcing聽聽to negotiate over its nuclear programme.
Reporting by Steven Scheer; Editing by Stephen Powell