Cyber Incident Victim: Bank of Israel
Date:
Aug 2014
Location:
Israel
Summary
Hackers affiliated with Anonymous and AntiSec disrupted multiple Israeli government websites, including the Bank of Israel, in a coordinated cyberattack expressing solidarity with Gaza and retaliation for the alleged suspension of the group’s social media accounts. The attackers publicly listed targeted sites via Pastebin, causing extended outages for critical services such as the Israel Defense Forces' official website, which had previously experienced compromises including social media account hijackings by other threat actors. The operation emphasized collective persistence, with participants vowing continued actions despite individual setbacks.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 3 motives | 1 technique |
| Threat Actors | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 2 actors | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On August 24-25, 2014, hackers identifying with the Anonymous collective and using the AntiSec alias disrupted multiple Israeli government websites, including the Bank of Israel, Israel Defense Forces (idf.gov.il), and the Israeli Prime Minister’s site. The attackers publicly listed these targets on Pastebin, framing the operation as a response to Israel’s military actions in Gaza and expressing solidarity with its residents. Their message emphasized persistence, stating that individual setbacks would not halt their efforts, quoting, “You never know what results will come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no result.” The hackers’ actions rendered several services inaccessible, with idf.gov.il remaining offline at the time of reporting on August 25. A tweet from the account @AnonymousGlobo on August 25 explicitly linked the disruption to the #OpSaveGaza campaign, reinforcing the attackers’ stated motives.
The incident occurred against a backdrop of repeated cyber targeting of Israeli infrastructure, particularly the IDF’s online assets. Prior to this attack, in July 2014, the Syrian Electronic Army had compromised the IDF’s official Twitter account, disseminating false warnings about a nuclear leak following rocket strikes on the Dimona facility. While the August 2014 website takedowns did not involve social media account hijackings, they demonstrated continued vulnerabilities in critical Israeli digital services. The Bank of Israel’s inclusion among the affected entities highlighted the operational scope of the attack, though specific technical details regarding the intrusion methods or duration of the bank’s outage were not disclosed in available reports. No explicit mitigation efforts or restoration timelines from the targeted organizations were documented in the source material.