Several Israeli government websites were down on Monday following a large-scale cyberattack. A source in the defense establishment claims that this is the biggest cyber attack ever carried out against Israel. They believe that a state actor or large organization is carrying out the attack, but they cannot yet determine who is behind it.
The websites of the ministries of the interior, health, justice and welfare were taken down, as well as that of the Prime Minister's Office. Sources in the cybersecurity industry say the operation was a large-scale distributed denial of service (also known as DDos) attack.
With the attack, the National Cybernetic Directorate and the defense establishment, declared a state of emergency to study the extent of damage, while checking strategic Israeli sites and government infrastructure, such as Israel's electricity and water companies, to see if they too have been attacked.
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The defense establishment alleges that the attack targeted websites using the “.GOV.IL” domain, which is used on all government websites except defense-related ones. Another site that uses this domain is the government database. Despite this, some of the sites are still accessible via smartphone.
After the attack, Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel called a meeting with officials from the Ministry of Communications. Telecommunications companies have been working to get the downed sites back online, and service is gradually being restored. Some sites even had their access restored that afternoon.
The National Cyber Directorate said: “In the last few hours, a denial of service attack against a communications provider was identified. As a result, access to several websites, including government websites, was blocked for a short time. now all sites are operational.”
