(Image Source: The Hacker News) 

 

BY SAM JOSPEH

ANCHOR EMILY SPAIN

Was Israel hacked? That’s the question being asked after several Israeli government websites crashed Sunday. Ha’aretz reports e-Government, the company who manage the state’s websites, was quick to deny any allegation of hacking.

"A thorough investigation was conducted and the source of the malfunction was found to be IBM-manufactured storage component. During the night, e-Government worked with IBM representatives to restore the component successfully."

But that explanation is being treated with skepticism.  Infamous hacking group Anonymous posted a message just two days before the crash berating Israel’s actions involving the Gaza Flotilla. Here’s part of that message the group posted on YouTube.

“If you continue blocking humanitarian vessels to Gaza or repeat the dreadful actions of May 31st, 2010 against any Gaza Freedom Flotillas then you will leave us no choice but to strike back. Again and again, until you stop. We are Anonymous. We are legion. We do not forget. We do not forgive. Expect us.”

All Israeli government sites were up and running again the next day. The Guardian has statements from a former member of Israel’s cyber security division, which insists this is all a coincidence.

“Nothing is impossible but it doesn't look like [a cyber-attack] ... It's all part of a project called Tehila that puts all of those sites together in one data centre. When one fell, they all fell. The back-ups failed. Hopefully next time they'll have better back-ups and this kind of thing shouldn't happen. Those were just the front-end sites. They don't contain the actual classified information.”

It's difficult to confirm whether Anonymous is really responsible for the crash or not, but a post from its Twitter account claims responsibility.

“...morons from Israel says that was just an error on their network. F..ing liars :D”