Hackers target DoD and Israel

From Israel National News:

Anti-Israel Hackers Hit Yesha and Azerbaijan

by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

Hackers claiming to be from Kurdistan or Iraq invaded the websites of the community of Shiloh in Samaria and of Israel’s ally Azerbaijan, one day after the “Saudi hacker” shut down the websites of El Al and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s information site.

Shiloh is a large Jewish town in central Samaria, north of Jerusalem. It also is the ancient site of the first temple established by Jews after the Exodus from Egypt and before the building the First Temple in Jerusalem.

The hackers left a message that may have contained a typographical error in Hebrew and addressed “managers” instead of “settlers,” which is what would have been written if it were not for a missing letter. They wrote, “Dear Managers. This is not a joke nor a dream. This is the true reality. From Kurdistan or Iraq. Blessings from all of the Kurdish hackers.”

The hacking epidemic against Israel also has reached outside the country. Official websites in the Muslim country of Azerbaijan, an ally of Israel, were hacked on Monday, Now Lebanon reported.

Hackers placed anti-Israeli messages on the sites of the Azerbaijan's Interior and Communications ministries, its governing party and constitutional court. They also replaced the Interior Ministry's homepage with an image of the devil lurking over a picture of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and President Shimon Peres shaking hands.

"You are servants of the Jews," said a message, which also threatened Aliyev to meet the same fate as Muammar Qaddafi and Hosni Mubarak.

The hacking epidemic has prompted the Bank of Israel to consider ordering banks to block access to their website from outside of Israel. The site of The First International Bank of Israel was hacked on Monday.

(c) INN

And the DoD hackers? From Homeland Security News Wire comes this gem:

Chinese hackers target DoD, DHS smart cards

17 January, 2012

Cybersecurity researchers have discovered malicious code developed by Chinese hackers to target the smart cards used by Defense Department, DHS, and State Department personnel.

According to researchers at AlienVault, the code is a newly created variant of Sykipot, a piece of malicious software, specifically designed to target smart cards, which grant government employees access to the most sensitive networks.

Smart cards function as an additional authentication layer beyond employee passwords, but with the new code, hackers now have all the elements they need to infiltrate sensitive government servers.

So far the code is believed to have been used in more than a dozen attacks beginning in March 2011, but it remains unclear what the hackers have stolen or how many computers they infected....

You just know there is more - here.