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Israel, Egypt face sophisticated cyber warfare

Cape Town - A group of cyber extremists are carrying out a series of internet attacks against Israel and Egypt in the latest chapter of an international cyber war.

Security firm Trend Micro reports that it uncovered the attacks in conjunction with the US Air Force.

"The Trend Micro research reveals that Palestinian threat actors have staged a targeted attack, Operation Arid Viper, to exfiltrate data from high-profile targets in the Israeli government and have been doing so since mid-2013," the security firm said.

The hackers gained entry through using pornographic images as bait to lure their victims in what the security company described as a targeted attack to steal critical information from high value targets.

"The malware used was unique in that it infected devices by leveraging the sudden appearance of pornographic images on the user’s computer as a diversion," said Trend Micro.

Revenge attack

It is not clear whether the attacks are revenge for the cyber attack via the Stuxnet worm on the Iranian nuclear facilities in which some implicated both Israel and the US.

That attack was also a targeted cyber intrusion specifically designed to compromise specific individuals and devastated Iran’s nuclear programme.

In Egypt, the hackers seem to have a longer political game plan, if the methodology is an indication.

"Utilising the same command and control infrastructure in Germany, attacks against Egypt have compromised image files for potential use in future blackmailing activities," said Trend Micro.

Critical infrastructure like internet connected traffic signals is vulnerable to cybercrime. (Duncan Alfreds, Fin24)

Unlike cyber intrusions that attempt to trick computer users into handing over financial information, the Israeli and Egyptian attacks have markings of a state sponsored group.

Terrorist groups have demonstrated that they are not beyond using technology tools to further their cause.

Media reports indicate that groups like the Islamic State (IS) regularly use social media as a recruiting tool.

'Cyber Extremist'

Cyber warfare is also a relatively inexpensive method to launch potentially devastating attacks on infrastructure such as internet-connected traffic lights, automated bridges, dams or power stations.

"We have seen an uptick in this 'Cyber Extremist' behaviour in recent months including, examples from Russia and North Korea, and these new attacks reflect even more sophistication and aggression," said Tom Kellermann, chief cyber security officer at Trend Micro.

North Korea was accused of launching a cyber attacks against Sony Pictures over the release of the movie The Interview.

US President Barack Obama warned that the US would respond in its own time and less than a fortnight later, North Korea's internet went down, though the US officially denied having anything to do with it.

"The geopolitical landscape is evolving to include groups of well-resourced hackers who are either acting at the behest of government entities or terrorist organisations, or at the very least using their abilities to further their cause," Kellermann said.

The firm added that the ongoing attacks are being hosted on a server based in Germany and the location of the hackers was likely Gaza, Egypt and Morocco.


- Follow Duncan on Twitter

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