DDoS Attacks Leveraged by Attackers in Israel Conflict

Over the last few years, we’ve observed Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks used in many conflicts. In the Russia-Ukraine war, DDoS was used both by government cyber agencies and individual hacktivist groups to disrupt the flow of information and deface sites to promote propaganda. 

The current crisis in Israel is no different. Since October 7, DDoS attacks on Israeli sites have risen almost 10 times higher than the average. There’s been a 54% increase in Imperva-protected sites targeted per day, primarily in the government and financial sectors. All attacks were mitigated by Imperva DDoS protection.

The largest recent attack, which occurred on October 7, targeted an Israeli government site, and reached over 1M RPS. The attack came from 13,000 IP addresses.

Many hacker groups are already pledging to target Israeli sites. Killnet, a pro-Russian hacking group, pledged on Sunday to target Israeli government systems with DDoS attacks, blaming Israel for supporting Ukraine and NATO. Anonymous Sudan, another pro-Russian hacktivist collective, declared support for Palestine and claimed an attack on an Israeli news site Monday morning. The AnonGhost hacking group claimed that it had breached a missile alert app and sent fake missile alerts, accompanied by hate symbols. These claims are supported by the noticeable increase in Russian IPs targeting Israeli sites – an increase of 1800% since October 7.

Iranian hacking groups are commonly blamed for attacks on Israel, and although Iran has pledged support for Hamas, no Iranian hacking groups have claimed attacks on Israel since the war began. However, since October 7, Iranian IP addresses targeting Israeli sites have risen sharply.

The surge in DDoS attacks amidst the Israel conflict shows the evolving nature of modern warfare, where digital battlegrounds supplement physical ones. With various hacking groups, both state-sponsored and independent, pledging allegiance to different sides, the digital realm becomes a space for propaganda, disruption, and psychological warfare. As countries grapple with these cyber threats, it continues to show the need for cyber defense.