Hundreds of Israeli Websites Cyberattacked

Hundreds of Israeli websites were hacked Thursday morning. The National Cyber Directorate confirmed it had received reports of many websites coming under cyberattack.

Israeli cyberexperts are attributing the attacks to elements connected to the Iranian regime, and cybersecurity service said that the situation is being dealt with.

The hacked sites had the phrase “Be ready for a big surprise” in Hebrew and English written on their homepage.

There was no official indication on who is thought to be behind the attacks, although the images on the sites featured Iranian flags and symbols.

uPress, a WordPress website storage company, stated Thursday that have detected a large-scale cyberattack on many of their hosted websites. “This is a deliberate and widespread attack by anti-Israeli (Iranian) elements. We have identified a security vulnerability in a WordPress plug-in that caused the hacking, we are working with the National Cyber Directorate and are conducting a security investigation and handling all sites,” the company stated.

They reassured customers that “your sites and information are backed up by our backup systems and we are working to address all sites affected.”

The National Cyber Directorate issued a warning that people should not visit corrupted websites.

On Wednesday, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that Iran will support any nation or group that fights Israel. “We will support and assist any nation or any group anywhere who opposes and fights the Zionist regime, and we do not hesitate to say this,” Khamenei said in a post on his official English language Twitter account.