'Anonymous' hacks Israeli websites, damage minimal!

The hackers associated with the activist group 'Anonymous' reportedly hit the Israeli websites of the premier's office, the defence ministry, the education ministry, and the Central Bureau of Statistics, among others, but the damage has been minimal as the Jewish state is prepared to fend off such attacks, as reported in media.

"As of midday (0900 GMT), the sites of the government of Israel are available to the public, as they have been all weekend," the finance ministry said in a statement.

It said the education ministry site had been temporarily out of action "because of a technical fault which has been fixed." It did not elaborate further.

Speaking to army radio, Professor Yitzhak ben Israel, head of the National Council for Research and Development, said the scope of the damage to Israeli sites was "more or less non-existent".

"That's because of our preparedness in advance," said Ben Israel, who founded the National Cyber Bureau, which operates out of the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Guy Mizrahi, co-founder of Israeli data protection consultancy Cyberia, confirmed that Israeli websites had been under a "significant attack" for the past few days.

Last November, as Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza faced off in an 8-day confrontation, the Jewish state said it had been targeted by an "unprecedented" mass cyber-warfare campaign.

At the time, Anonymous claimed it had downed or erased the databases of nearly 700 Israeli sites in protest over the assault and over what it said was Israeli threats to cut "all internet and other telecommunications into and out of Gaza."