Online propaganda war escalates
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
More than 10,000 websites have been defaced or compromised by hackers in an effort to show their pro-Palestinian support during the ongoing Gaza Strip conflict.
Though the campaign to attack websites with anti-Israeli and anti-American messages was first reported last week, the number of infected sites has significantly increased since the weekend, including some high-profile Israel-based sites, SCMagazineus.com reports.
Gary Warner, director of research in computer forensics at the University of Alabama, told the news provider a hacker named ColdZ3ro runs an Arabic language hacking school and has claimed responsibility for thousands of website defacements, which suggests this may only be the beginning.
"You can have almost no skills on the computer, and take one of his tools, start using it and be productive. People are wanting to participate and support Palestine and they're finding ample opportunities in these tools," said Warner.
In response, Israeli hackers encouraged users to download a tool to launch denial-of-service attacks against Hamas websites, though it appears the original site has been taken down, states SCMagazineus.com.
On Tuesday, Israeli military surrounded Gaza city with ground forces after administering more than 40 air strikes the night before, CNN.com reports.
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