Cyberattack on Israel! Government websites crash

A cyberattack crashed a number of Israeli government websites Monday, according to the country’s cyber officials. 

The Israel National Cyber Directorate blamed the outages on a denial-of-service or DDoS attack. Such incidents typically involve outside attackers directing waves of inauthentic traffic at a website, temporarily rendering it inaccessible. 

Ministries of health, justice, welfare were affected, as was the prime minister’s office, the news site Haaretz reported. 

Communications Minister Yoaz Hendel convened a meeting with officials at his office, and communications companies took steps to return service to normal. Access to the websites has been restored, the agency said.

Hendel declined to comment on the possible source of the attack. 

Gil Messing, spokesman for Israel-based Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. said it was unlikely any significant damage was caused. “This is usually done to send a message and create a lot of buzz. It isn’t necessarily an infiltration or grabbing of information,” he added.

China says it has detected cyberattack tool used by US intelligence: Reports

Beijing [China], March 15 (ANI): China said that it has discovered a cyber espionage tool used by the US National Security Agency (NSA), Chinese newspaper Global Times reported citing a report by the country's state-run National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center.

According to the newspaper, the tool is capable of lurking in a victim's computer to access sensitive information and was found to have controlled global internet equipment and stole large amounts of users' information.

The NOPEN Trojan is a remote control tool for Unix/Linux operating systems primarily used for stealing files, gaining access to computers, redirecting network communications, and viewing information on a targeted device, according to the report.

The NSA used the Trojan to control a large number of internet devices worldwide, steal sensitive data and classified information, resulting in invaluable losses, the report added, citing internal NSA documents made public by the hacker group Shadow Brokers.

"The vast majority of the NSA's arsenal consists of stealth fighters and submarines that can easily attack victims without their knowledge," an anonymous expert said.

He noted that the NOPEN Trojan is one of the key tools in the NSA's cyberwarefare, stressing that the leakage and proliferation of this tool may exacerbate an increasingly severe network security situation, threatening the overall security of cyberspace.