An unexpected power outage in Israel on Thursday left the country scrambling. Although the utility bodies and government officials tried to dismiss it as a network glitch, hacker group Anonymous Sudan claimed that it was a targeted attack.
The power outage in Israel was widespread, covering major cities including Tel Aviv and Beersheba, on Thursday.
According to a statement from a spokesperson for the Electric Company, the power outage in Israel was caused by a glitch in one of the Haifa power plants, reported The Jerusalem Post.
According to the spokesperson, regular power supply had already been restored in some areas with full restoration expected in the coming minutes.
Anonymous Sudan, in its Telegram Post, taunted Israeli officials by asking, “is darkness good? Why don’t you have electricity?”
“Do you want to down the internet and communications? The electric attack was just for fun,” the Telegram post continued.
Power outage in Israel and Anonymous Sudan
“Anonymous Sudan has claimed responsibility for power outages across Israel today. However Israeli officials are claiming the outages were caused due to an error and not a cyber attack,” Alon Gal, Co-Founder & CTO of Israeli cybersecurity company Hudson Rock, told The Cyber Express.
Although electricity gradually returned to the affected areas, significant traffic congestion was already being experienced in Tel Aviv due to the outage causing traffic lights to fall, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Twitterverse and cybersecurity news feeds were abuzz with alerts on power outage in Israel, reported from various cities.
According to Alon Gal, the power outage in Israel is the continuation of the attacks that began on Wednesday, when the country celebrated its Independence Day.
On 26 April, Anonymous Sudan launched an attack on Israeli news sites like Maariv and Walla, as well as the Defence Ministry and the Shin Bet, the Israeli intelligence operation.
Anonymous Sudan and Israeli Independence Day Attacks
Anonymous Sudan stated on Telegram that it would solely target Israeli sites throughout 26 April, the Israeli Independence Day because of their celebration of the occupation of Palestine.
The attacks were streaming in for over a week.
The Mossad website was disrupted by Anonymous Sudan using a DDoS attack on 25 March, The Cyber Express reported.
Mossad, one of Israel’s most prominent intelligence agencies alongside Aman and Shin Bet, was reportedly targeted.
Following the cyber attack, Anonymous Sudan shared a screenshot of the inaccessible website. The screenshot also included links to other sites, such as the National Insurance Institute of Israel.
The attacks intensified on Wednesday, 26 April, with the Facebook page of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hacked on Wednesday evening and filled with Quranic verses, but it was quickly returned to normal.
While Anonymous Sudan claimed responsibility for the hack, it is unclear if it was also responsible for the hacking of the premier’s official website, reported The Times of Israel.
The group on Wednesday also claimed to have brought down the websites of two Israeli ports, various news sites, along with the sites for the Mossad spy agency and the Shin Bet security agency.
The attacks primarily used a DDoS method that overwhelms a site’s servers with requests but does not compromise any information hosted on the site.
Anonymous Sudan has targeted Israeli websites over the past few weeks, including the National Insurance Institute website and the Mossad spy agency’s website.
The group has also carried out brief attacks on government services, healthcare, and other operations in European countries.
The Cyber Express reported earlier that unlike what the name suggests, Anonymous Sudan has got nothing to do with the Sudan administration or the cause of the country. Instead, it operated based on possible ties with Russia’s Killnet hacking group.