Current events
Ten cyber impacts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict worldwide
27 Nov 2023
- The cybersecurity company S2 Grupo has explained that the impact in the cyber field is being developed mainly by hacktivist groups, although it is expected that APT organizations will soon begin to act through cyber espionage, disinformation or phishing, among other actions.
- The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has increased the number of cyber-offensive actions between the two countries.
- It is expected that the critical infrastructures and strategic sectors of both Israel, Palestine, and any other country that has shown support to any of them, even if it is humanitarian, will be the focus of cybercrime.
The Valencian company S2 Grupo, specialized in cybersecurity and critical systems management, has warned that the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, in addition to developing on the physical level, is already having an impact on the field of global cybersecurity.
S2 Grupo's team of experts and research has carried out an analysis from which it can be seen that these are the main consequences that are occurring and are expected to occur in the field of cybersecurity:
- "One of the main impacts of this conflict is the increase in cyber risk against public and private entities in Western countries that have been close to Israel, mainly by hacktivist groups and to a lesser extent by APT (advanced persistent threats) groups", said José Rosell, managing partner of S2 Grupo.
- Cyber threat groups will leverage the conflict to increase exploitation, attack and influence campaigns.
- The primary targets of these cybercrime campaigns will be the critical infrastructure and strategic sectors of Western entities located in both the Middle East and the West.
- Since the armed conflict began, there has been an increase in cyber offensive actions by numerous mostly pro-Palestinian hacktivist groups against Israeli government agencies.
- There is also evidence of the involvement of pro-Israeli hacktivist groups.
- A cyber-attack has been carried out against Alfanet, the largest Internet service provider in Palestine.
- The objectives of cyber-attacks in this context will focus on targeting critical infrastructures and strategic sectors of the opposing countries.
- Cybercriminals will also target public bodies and private entities that can provide them with economic, political, military or humanitarian support, among others.
- Although, for the moment, cyber offensive activity is focusing on actions from hacktivists, the S2 Grupo team warns that it is essential to take into account APT groups with alleged links to other states aligned with the Palestinian theses, which could be developing exploitation or attack campaigns in the coming weeks.
- In addition, the security company has emphasized that it is also likely that APT groups linked to other states not directly involved could use this conflict to carry out phishing or influence campaigns (through disinformation or fakenews, for example).