Sébastien Le Belzic (special correspondent in Tel Aviv) / Photo credits: THOMAS SAMSON / AFP
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7:32 a.m., November 2, 2023
The conflict between Israel and Hamas is not only taking place in Gaza. On the Internet, cyberattacks against the Jewish state are increasing. The country, already targeted by this type of offensive before October 7, is at the forefront of cyber protection. Among Israel’s assets is a small group of computer geniuses called “white hackers.”
In the Middle East, Israel’s response against Hamas continues. In parallel with air and land operations, the conflict is also exported to the cyberspace front. Since October 7, attempted cyberattacks against the Jewish state have increased. A battlefield to which Israeli engineers and hackers, nicknamed “white hackers”, are accustomed, on the front line to fight computer hackers from around the world.
David Allouch is one of these cyberspace soldiers. A little computer genius, he is the dean of Israel’s hackers, an army of civilian computer scientists mobilized since the start of the war, capable of identifying the origin of these computer attacks.
A fight close to the front
“Most of the hacking comes from Iran now,” he emphasizes at the microphone of Europe 1. “It is more state groups that we are dealing with. They are more organized, more efficient. We can still spot them straight away and we can see where the hackers are, where they come from, what they do and what computer they are coming from, etc.,” he continues.
A war not so far from the front after all, especially when it comes to controlling missiles. “Neutralizing a missile is not necessarily with another missile, it can also be with hacking,” underlines the computer scientist.
A cyber war “even more widespread for three weeks”
Kfir Kimri is the head of a Cybersecurity company. Its job is to thwart increasingly sophisticated computer attacks. “There has always been cyberwar, we see them putting logos with war and Hamas on sites but it has become even more widespread in the last three weeks,” alarms the entrepreneur.
The Tsahal, the Israeli army, itself has an elite unit capable of tracking down pirates in the depths of the Internet and which calls, in the greatest secrecy, on the services of these patriotic hackers.