Hackers deface Israeli websites

Global hackers joined an annual campaign led by online group Anonymous, defacing websites in Israel and claiming to post Facebook credentials and phone numbers of hundreds of Israelis.

Singer Shalom Hanoch's website was hijacked and its home page replaced with a message from Anonymous, as part of the attack protesting Israel's treatment of Palestinians. Sites run by Israeli urologists and an organization for excellence in education were also hacked, according to Army Radio.

The National Cyber Bureau issued recommendations on how to boost cyber security ahead of the Tuesday attack and most Israeli cyber experts played down the risks. "Each time they are less and less effective," said Isaac Ben Israel, head of Tel Aviv University's Cyber Research Center.

Israel fends off thousands of cyber-attacks every day. Two years ago, a similar assault led by Anonymous briefly shut down several government websites. Anonymous group OpIsrael claimed on its Twitter page that 6000 modems were hacked and called for a concentrated assault on Israeli news sites such as Ynet and Globes without having an immediate effect.

Daniel Cohen, a researcher at the Israel Institute for National Security Studies, said that the hackers involved in the cyber-attack are mostly from Gaza, Syria, Morocco and other countries in the Middle East. Only a small number of them are capable of performing advanced attacks, he said in a press release on March 25.