The ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza strip has been mirrored by online attacks. Activists and supporters of both sides have used online propaganda tactics, some more legal than others.

A group calling itself Agd_Scorp/Peace Crew has hacked into and defaced several political and military Web sites, including ones belonging to Nato and the US Army, posting pro-Palestinian messages. And news sites operating from both Israeli and Arab perspectives say they’ve suffered hacking attempts since the conflict began.

It even looks likely that hackers are exploiting the dispute to spread viruses. Sites with names such as www.help-israel-win.com offer what is supposedly a tool for sharing your computer power to attack pro-Hamas Web sites. Those responsible deny they’ll use the tool as a Trojan virus, but even if that’s true, it seems a safe bet that hackers will simply pose as the campaigners and distribute shady files.

While there is no evidence they’ve been involved in the hacking, officials from both sides have harnessed more legitimate web tools. The Israeli Foreign Ministry’s press chief told Reuters his government was putting its message across through channels such as Facebook: “We use all the possible ways of communication that the modern world is giving us in order to convey our message”. Meanwhile Hamas officials have got round media blockades by posting videos on YouTube.

Supporters on both sides have also come into hot disputes through social media sites. Time quotes an American and a Jordanian, who have created Facebook groups backing Israel and the Palestinians respectively, as each having received multiple death threats.

It’s not the first such case of international political disputes finding their way online. During last summer’s hostilities between Russia and Georgia, military action actually came a couple of weeks after Georgian government Web sites had been brought down by denial of service attacks which some suspected were the work of Russian officials. The attacks left Georgian politicians less able to communicate with the rest of the world during the conflict.

At the time, one security researcher said internet attacks would likely become a feature of modern warfare, pointing out that an entire cyber-campaign can cost as little as the price of a new tank tread.

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Entry was posted on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at 6:00 pm under Hacking, Politics, Social Media, Web2.0.

Read more entries by John Lister.
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