Cyber Attack Strikes Electricity Authority of Israel

According to Yuval Steinitz, Minister of Infrastructure, Energy and Water of Israel, there has been a server cyber assault against the country's electricity authority. Steinitz was speaking at CyberTech 2016 a showcase event of cyber security at Israel when he announced that on January 25th, 2016, Monday, officials spotted a very big cyber assault that ever occurred in the country. The assault resulted in computers at the department being disconnected from the Internet. While full details are absent, the media, however, cited words like "severe cyber attack," "electric" as well as "paralyzed."

The attack didn't cause power loss in Israel. SANS Institute a cyber-security research center blogged that the PC-virus seemingly infected solely the ministry's networks, sparing the power distribution sites or electric company. And though Mr. Steinitz gave a picture of targeted cyber-spying scheme, which used malicious Trojans and spyware programs, to describe the assault, YNet the tech website of Israel delved into the incident only to find that a ransomware program had caused the infection. It is possible that the attackers aimed to monetize the assault while didn't particularly aim to bring down the electric grid.

Two days later, on Wednesday, YNet News reported about the virus that it was planted on the Electric Authority's server through electronic mail. If the malicious file was opened, the virus got disseminated across the remaining PCs of the network. And being a ransomware, the malicious software disabled the PCs or blocked access to their files while demanded money off the end-users to recover their lost control. Techinsider posted this, January 27, 2016.

Meanwhile, even though the attack's size was substantial and it affected a critical infrastructure of the country, Steinitz noted that it had been possible to detect the virus while appropriate software was also ready for neutralizing it. He continued that the country was forced to disable a good number of PCs at the electricity department. The concerned people were dealing with the situation while he looked forward to having the extremely severe event get over, he added.

For a period of two days, PCs were closed that were resumed online 26th January.

» SPAMfighter News - 2/2/2016