Saudi hackers attack Israel's stock exchange and national airline

Tel Aviv - The websites of the Tel Aviv stock exchange and the Israeli national airline have been attacked by hackers identified with a known Saudi group. There have been attacks in the past two weeks on Israeli businesses with details of credit cards posted online.

BBC reports that the latest attacks on Israel directed at the Tel Aviv stock exchange website, caused the site to be overloaded with traffic leading to denial of service messages such as "site on maintenance," or too "busy." According to a spokeswoman of the Tel Aviv stock exchange Orna Goren, "The website is working as normal. What the hacker did is he put a lot of traffic on the entrance to the website...There are too many users so it's hard to get into the site but our trading system is working as usual. Now we are trying to clear the traffic so everyone can use the site. We'll discuss what we can do in future to solve these issues." BBC reports that Israel's national airline El Al, has also reported "Saudi hacker activity," causing disruption of its online services. Daily Mail reports, however, that El Al brought down its website to prevent anticipated attacks. According to a statement by the airline, "El Al is aware that for the past two weeks cyber war rages against Israel." The cyber attacks began early in the month when hackers who identified themselves as "group-xp," a group already known as a Saudi hacking group, said they gained access to 40,000 Israeli credit card accounts and described their attack as a "gift to the world for the New Year." The attacks involved disruption of online services of First International Bank of Israel (FIBI) and two subsidiary banks, Massad and Otzar Hahayal. After the first attacks on Israeli banks and businesses, a Saudi hacker identifying himself as OxOmar, said further attacks were planned. According to YNet News, OxOmar said further attacks would be carried out by a pro-Palestinian group called "Nightmare." Jerusalem Post reports that OxOmar said he would stop cyber attacks only if Israel apologizes for "genocide" on Palestinians. YNet News also reports that OxOmar demanded apology from Israel. Oxomar said he joined forces with "Nightmare" to fight Israel. According to OxOmar, "I want to harm Israel in any way possible. I can harm them in Cyber world so I would do anything for this world. I'll let Israeli authorities cry and suffer." The hacker explained: "A lot of Arab hackers decided to join us and we are managing a private channel together." He boasted: "No one in this world going to arrest me. It's impossible to find me and I'll keep attacking Israel. Just stay and watch." "OxOmar" also demanded apology from the Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who said that the hackers' activities were acts of terror. OxOmar said, "Danny Ayalon should ask for apologize (sic) from me for threatening me to death and Israeli authorities should ask for apologize (sic) from Gaza people for genocide, they should ask for apologize for Sabra and Shatila massacre. Then we may reduce power of attacks." (sic). According to YNet News, Ayalon has called on the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Sub-Committee to convene an emergency session on Israel's need of an elite cyber unit. The Israeli banking system is considering blocking online access for overseas users as a protective measure. Daily Mail reports that meanwhile, Hamas, the Islamic group that governs the Gaza strip, has applauded the attacks and called for more. Hamas, according to Daily Mail, hailed the attack as a "blow against the Jewish state." According to Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri Ham, "This is a new field of resistance against the Occupation and we urge Arab youth to develop their methods in electronic warfare in the face of [Israel's] crimes." BBC reports that after the hacker attack that affected at least 20,000 active credit cards, an Israeli hacker retaliated, publishing details of hundreds of Saudi credit cards online, portending a possible escalation of cyber-war in the Middle East.