Asymmetric warfare continues to be a barometer for political tensions around the world. Since the outbreak of the Al-Aksa Intifada in September 2000, Israeli websites with the “.il” domain have been the biggest victim of web defacements in the Middle East region by a wide margin. In the year 2001, the .il domain was defaced 413 times, up 220 percent from the year before, according to digital crime statistics released by the mi2g Intelligence Unit.
During the past 14 days, Israel was the victim of 67 percent of significant web defacements in the Middle East—10 hacks of a regional total of 15—according to mi2g. Between July 1999 and mid-April 2002, Israel has suffered 548 overt hack attacks, which amounted to 1295 throughout the Middle East during that period, equivalent to 42 percent.
Some 13 percent of all regional attacks were targeted at Turkey, while Morocco and Egypt suffered 12 percent each. Israel’s digital risk is greater because it has the most Internet connections in the Middle East—1.1 million—more than all 22 Arab countries combined.
“The tense situation in the Middle East is reflected in both covert and overt hack attacks. Historically, we have seen similar asymmetric attacks develop in the case of the NATO-Serbia war in April 1999, the China-Taiwan standoff in August 1999 and the US-China spy plane incident in April 2001,” commented mi2g’s Chairman and CEO DK Matai.
The most active anti-Israel hacker group, which claims to be Egyptian, started its activities just weeks after September 11. Other Middle Eastern countries—Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan—have also been hit in April by politically motivated hack attacks, many international in origin. — (menareport.com)
© 2002 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
