Israel claims to have 'deflected 44 mln cyber-attacks' since start of Gaza offensive

Sydney, Nov 19 (ANI): The Israeli authorities have said that they have deflected millions of cyber-attack attempts since the start of its Gaza offensive four days ago. Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said the government was now waging war on 'a second front - of cyber-attacks against Israel'. Steinitz said in the past four days, Israel had 'deflected 44 million cyber-attacks on government websites.' "All the attacks were thwarted except for one, which targeted a specific website that was down for six or seven minutes," he added. According to the Herald Sun, Steinitz did not say who was responsible, but said the government had successfully managed to deflect almost every attack, thereby avoiding serious disruption or other damage. His remarks came a day after notorious Internet hacking group Anonymous claimed to have downed dozens of websites of Israeli state agencies and a top bank in protest over the Jewish state's deadly air assault. Steinitz made no direct reference to Anonymous and failed to specify if the government was dealing with a coordinated attack. According to the paper, the minister, however, stressed that the government had come up with backup for "essential websites" should they be taken down. (ANI)