How To Protect Your Computers, Networks From Anonymous Israel Cyber Attack

Jerusalem, Israel --- April 2, 2013 … Threats have been made against the people of Israel for thousands of years. The latest threat now comes from a less macho, publicity seeking Internet group called Anonymous. Anonymous says that on April 7, 2013 it will "erase Israel from the Internet."

“OpIsrael,” which is being organized by anti-Zionist hackers, are said to be targeting the 100 largest Websites in Israel, including banks, credit card companies and communications firms. The cyber attacks are to take place hours before Israel begins to honor Holocaust Remembrance Day. But it will fail big time.

Hacking a computer is not rocket science. It's not some guy at a keyboard from NCIS or another Hollywood production typing at 90 mph and closing the world down. Here we will explain in simple terms how hacking works and how you can prevent your system from being attacked.

First, the hacker has to find you. Now that he has your Website he will look up its source on the Internet using hundreds of Websites that provide that information. It's called a "Who Is" database and you simply perform a search on that database as you would search Google for wine or the local weather report. The Who Is database will return what is called an IP address and a physical location. So your first line of defense is to make sure that your Internet information remains private. That is your domain name details. You know the part that say www.hereiam.com. You want to make sure that you have all information from your www.hereiam.com listed as private by the people who you bought your Internet domain name from.

This is door number one. If you haven't done that the hacker will try to access your information by getting into your Website by guessing and playing with a number of common passwords. When was the last time you changed your password? Does it have a combination of upper case, lower case letters, symbols and numbers in it?

OK, now let's say that the hacker gets inside your Website - can he now turn the lights off in your neighborhood?

The answer is no. If you keep one computer for the Internet and the other computer for your (Intranet) operations. That is - one computer will provide Internet access with no physical connection to the other computer which controls your lights, water and or missiles. You should keep both your Web and Intranet computers in separate rooms. When coming into the operations (Intranet) room, leave behind your CD's and memory key. Nothing is to touch your operations computer.

Door number two is email. If you get email from a source that you don't recognize and it is asking you questions or asking you to do something, just delete it. If you get email from a source that you trust - don't simply trust it.

FedEx recently had a very smart hacker (hacker is another word for con artist) who would send emails to the general public pretending to be FedEx. The email looked 100 percent authentic. And you were not asked to send your banking details with your date of birth, passport number, your wife's bra size and home address. It simply stated that you had a shipment waiting for you and requested that you print out the receipt it was providing you and take it to the nearest FedEx store. Simple right? Not really. Did you click on the PRINT graphic on the email? If you did then you just opened a software program whose job was to scan your computer for credit card information and passwords.

Do not click! Repeat - do not click on email you get from anyone without asking yourself - do I know who sent me this email?

Door number three - are you on Facebook or Twitter and surfing tons of information there? That's fine, just don't start clicking and entering into external Websites from people you don't know. By entering a Website you will be getting "cookies" - not from your local bakery or Oreo but these are small and legal software programs that track you on the Net. That will not give you a cardiac arrest but some Websites will have links on them which if you pressed will open software on your computer. Beware where you put your fingers and what you click on.

Door number four - people. Do you have any appointments for April 7th? Who's coming to your office? Who has come to your office in the days prior? Keep your computers away from everyone. Keep them sterile. Do not allow access to anyone who does not work in your department. If someone wants to check their email - tell them - not here, not today.

Door number five is the computer itself. It was not made or manufactured in Israel. Thus the foreign parts could be infected. What are the chances that your computer is infected with foreign parts? Well if you work for the Israel Ministry of Defense or the IDF, you could be a target. Otherwise, just relax and don't click on email that you don't recognize.

Will Anonymous take the Internet down in Israel? No. They may try to take down a few Websites (not the Internet) by having several thousands of computers attempting to reach each Website. That is called overload. As long as your Internet company is aware of the above Internet security precautions, you will be fine.

“Its gonna be the biggest ever operation launched against any country, its gonna be Huge!” said hacker Mauritania Attacker about the attempt to hurt Israel in an interview to The Hackers Post.

Why? For every action that Anonymous takes it leaves behind fingerprints. Those digital fingerprints can be traced - even if they are using software to create a VPN or virtual private network which hides their real location.

Recent laws being passed in the US, by NATO and in Israel written by 20 experts in conjunction with the International Committee of the Red Cross and the US Cyber Command clearly state that if a hacker breaks into a state computer and causes damage to infrastructure - NATO, the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain and or Israel will have the right to track them down and put a real, not virtual, bullet into their head.

Make sure that you have the latest Internet security software protection from Norton or Checkpoint. Have a beer, go for a walk, check out the American Center for Democracy Website and take your kids for Chinese food.

Anonymous hackers have already tried to attack over 700 Israeli Websites, with Israel deflecting 44 million cyber-attacks on government Websites.
This is just another lame attempt and a good exercise for the Israeli security establishment.

from the article ...
if a hacker breaks into a state computer and causes damage to infrastructure - NATO, the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain and or Israel will have the right to track them down and put a real, not virtual, bullet into their head

A welcome surprise. May the above be accurate.

“FedEx recently had a very smart hacker (hacker is another word for con artist) who would send emails to the general public pretending to be FedEx. The email looked 100 percent authentic. And you were not asked to send your banking details with your date of birth, passport number, your wife’s bra size and home address. It simply stated that you had a shipment waiting for you and requested that you print out the receipt it was providing you and take it to the nearest FedEx store. Simple right? Not really. Did you click on the PRINT graphic on the email? If you did then you just opened a software program whose job was to scan your computer for credit card information and passwords.”

This FEDEX scam turned up in my email. I called FEDEX itself to see if it was real, and they told me it was a scam, and FEDEX never sends out emails saying to go pick up a parcel. Parcel was the operative word. FEDEX never uses the word parcel, the lady I talked to said. Luckily I never printed out the scam email. Be careful folks, the crooks are out there everywhere.

Not clicking on email links and strong passwords are the two most important.

I also found that hackers break into peoples email accounts and use them to email everyone on their address list (which yahoo creates automatically) with links to their virus loading sites. I got one from someone I know from his yahoo email as so did 50 other people he emailed in the past. This is an old trick that still works.

Norton seems to work well finding suspicious files and suspicious websites and blocking them, sometimes flagging them asking me if I want them deleted off my computer,.

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