The ACDP condemns cyber attacks on countries

Media Release

Cheryllyn Dudley MP

16 April 2013

The ACDP condemns cyber attacks on countries, especially those targeting civilians. Israel, one of the tiniest countries in the world has the capacity to monitor and defend against these onslaughts, others more vulnerable could face cripling consequences and ordinary people, pay the price - ACDP MP Cheryllyn Dudley 

Last week, 8th April, was Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel. While many nations have faced ethnic cleansing and suffered terrible inhumanities, the Holocaust and the inhumanity against the Jewish people was on a scale unrivalled in every way.

Continued attacks against Israel persist and on 9 April there was a planned cyber attack by a group of online hackers in an attempt to ‘wipe Israel off the internet’. 

The Director of online webpage Accessible Government, Officer Ben Avi, says “what distinguished this plan when compared to previous attacks is that it really seemed to be organized by anonymous-affiliated groups from around the world in what looked like a joining of forces.”

Ultimately, the assault caused little damage and was assessed by the Israeli Government's National Cyber Bureau and by multiple media outlets to have been a failure. Sites that were adversely affected by the attack included those of the Israeli Ministry of Education and Central Bureau of Statistics.

Previous attacks were launched by the group during Israeli’s Pillar of Defence assault on Gaza last November. Websites targeted by the activists included those of banks, schools, privately owned small businesses and newspapers in Israel, as well as Israel's national Holocaust museum Yad Vashem and government agencies.