CNN has multiple crews in Gaza, Israel and neighboring countries to bring you the latest accurate information on the conflict, the impact on people and talks to stop the violence. Turn to CNN TV and CNN.com for what you need to know now.
Story highlights
Israel says its government websites have been hit by 44 million attacks
The hacker collective Anonymous claims some responsibility
The group says it has posted e-mail addresses online
Cyberattacks are the third front in the conflict between Israel and Gaza, Israeli official says
In the digital age, war isn’t contained to the ground.
The Israeli government on Sunday said it has been hit with more than 44 million cyberattacks since it began aerial strikes on Gaza last week. Anonymous, the hacker collective, claimed responsibility for taking down some sites and leaking passwords because of what it calls Israel’s “barbaric, brutal and despicable treatment” of Palestinians.
“The war is being fought on three fronts,” Carmela Avner, Israel’s chief information officer, said on Sunday in a press release. “The first is physical, the second is the world of social networks and the third is cyberattacks.
“The attackers are attempting to harm the accessibility of Israel’s government websites on an ongoing basis. When events like the current operation occur, this sector heats up and we see increased activity. Therefore, at this time, defending the governmental computer systems is of invaluable importance.”
Israel and the military wing of Hamas have been criticized for using ready-to-share images on social media to spread spin about the conflict, which has claimed the lives of about 100 Palestinians and three Israelis since the back-and-forth violence began again Wednesday.
There is some dispute about the effectiveness of the cyberattacks.
Israel says the attacks have largely been unsuccessful.
“We are reaping the fruits on the investment in recent years in the development of computerized defense systems, but we have a lot of work in store for us,” Israel’s finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, said in a written statement.
Reuters quotes him as saying only one website was down for 10 minutes.
CNN iReport: Instagram users wage peace in Israel
Anonymous, meanwhile, posted a list of more than 650 Israel-based websites it says it has taken down or defaced since last week.
“They’ve knocked down websites, deleted databases and have leaked e-mail addresses and passwords,” Casey Chan wrote Friday for the tech site Gizmodo. “It’s a whopping takedown.”