The electronic warfare, a new weapon facing Israel

The pirates fired a barrage of attempts to enter the Israeli websites to disable them. Yet, the flights of El-Al company was not exposed to any risks; many Israelis were shocked and afraid of the attacks that represent a new front in the Middle East conflict, which its battles were limited so far on the conventional weapons.

An official at the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Yoni Shemesh told the Israeli Radio just hours after the attack that the stock market generally creates barriers to the pirates.

The website of El-Al airline was crashed after more than 1000 attempts to enter it, and Hamas praised the attacks.

The New York Times quoting from Avi Weissman, the Executive Director of the Faculty of information security and electronic warfare and the Chairman of the Israeli Forum of Information Security, a non-profit organization, said that Israel may become a major force when it comes to the implementation of cyber attacks, but “in terms of defense we are a very small and neglected country”.

Professor Isaac Israel, who was an adviser to the Israeli government in the field of electronic security, said that Israel is working to protect its vital systems in the security establishment and in the civil field, including electricity, water, and trains since more than 10 years.

The pirate ox-Omar introduced himself as a nineteen years old adolescent from Riyadh when he published the details of thousands of the Israeli credit cards. Thus, he became a familiar name repeated on every tongue in Saudi Arabia and in other Arab countries, according to the Forbes magazine.

A few days later, another pirate appeared, introducing himself as an Israeli man called “ox-Omer” and replied to ox-Omar by publishing the details of what he said were more than 200 Saudi credit cards. But he did not disclose the security codes, saying that he did that as a matter of warning.

Analysts believe that what is happening is the beginning of a new front in the Middle East conflict, noting that Israel and the United States are waging their electronic warfare specifically against Iran and Syria, among others.

In the meantime, organizations such as the Anonymous are launching a guerrilla electronic warfare against the electronic companies and governments around the world.

It is not surprising that the electronic warfare is finding its way in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the analysts warn of what they call the warfare’s scary repercussions.

In fact, the electronic warfare is still new and is being fought so far by disabling websites, stealing passwords, and penetrating systems. However, lives would be threatened at some point yet to come, were civil liberties and private rights are to be targeted also because each step towards the security is associated with the risk of trade-off at the expense of freedom and individual rights, as said by those analysts.

It is difficult to imagine the electronic warfare as a war that can be violent and that threatens the lives, but such a danger is real and imminent. Our lives are growingly linked to the internet and increasingly relying on the modern technology, and this makes many people more vulnerable to the electronic terrorism and to other threats.

The cyber pirates can now block power stations, carry out remote bombings, stop services, destroy security systems, and penetrate vital infrastructure, and the list goes on.

For example, according to the Los Angeles newspaper, when a large water institution in Southern California wanted to test the weaknesses in the system of its computers, it contracted with the cyber pirate Mark Mevert for the examination. Thus, Mevert’s team took control of the equipment that addresses the drinking water chemically within one day.

Mevert, who declined to name the institution to protect it, said that there is always a way through which the pirate can enter.
The Forbes magazine quoting from U.S. officials and experts working in private companies stated that the weaknesses exploited by the pirate Mevert in California are found in vital installations across the United States.

It is said that the industrial control systems that the pirate Mevert was able to penetrate are also responsible for the operation of power grids, pipelines, chemical plants and other structures that are basic to the infrastructure.

Additionally, many of these systems that are designed without taking into account the security considerations are kept open to cyber attacks that can flare buildings, erase information, drop planes, and cut electricity to large areas of the country.

When talk turns from stealing identities and bank accounts to putting chemicals in the water supplies, then the risk becomes greater and forms a source of fear when thinking about the easy ways through which such vital facilities could be targeted.

The response to this threat has been slow so far by the officials of the security agencies in the world. As usual, the bureaucratic systems are also slow in their movements until something urgent takes place and then their reaction becomes excessive. The response to the attacks of September 11 is a prime example of this dynamic.

Hence, Israel is facing a similar dilemma if not a worse one. It will be interesting to see how it would respond to these attacks and to similar ones in the future.

At present, tension is intensifies between Israel, its neighbors, and the Palestinians, for the war on terrorism is turning slowly but surely into a war on the electronic terrorism, according to the Forbes magazine.