Whats at stake for Israel if hackers launch an organized, sustained attack?
Any country out there faces a risk of online attack. The difference is whether the online attack is a smart one, attacking critical infrastructure. For example, Die Hard 4 was pretty realistic about the potential impact on air traffic control. That’s a worst case scenario. In Estonia’s case, all their online banking, which is critical to their daily life, was targeted. In Georgia, the impact was more on the Georgia’s visibility on the internet and their ability to communicate with the world. What can you tell us about the hackers? Whenever there’s ethnic tension, like China-Taiwan or Russia-Georgia, or the Mohammed cartoons, people feel empowered on the internet. There are loosely affiliated ad hoc groups of people all over the place who launch these attacks. Of the hundreds of daily attacks, most aren’t politically motivated. More like an issue of money or a grudge. Pro-Arab and pro-Israel hackers have been attacking unaffiliated web sites like banks, newspapers, an art site, etc. The
