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Pro-Palestinian hacker targets dozens of Israeli websites

“Darkcoder” hacker disrupts access to dozens of municipalities, a hospital and the Opera, and replaces content on the Teachers Union website with an image captioned “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the National CERT at the cyberpark in Beersheva on July 27, 2017, with Buki Carmeli, head of the National Cyber Defense Authority, and Eviatar Matania, head of the National Cyber Bureau in the Prime Minister's Office. Photo by Kobi Gideon/GPO.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visits the National CERT at the cyberpark in Beersheva on July 27, 2017, with Buki Carmeli, head of the National Cyber Defense Authority, and Eviatar Matania, head of the National Cyber Bureau in the Prime Minister’s Office. Photo by Kobi Gideon/GPO.

Dozens of Israeli websites were breached on Tuesday by a pro-Palestinian hacker known by his Twitter handle “Darkcoder.”

The hacker launched a distributed denial-of-service attack to disrupt access to the websites of the Israeli cities of Eilat, Akko, Netanya, Kfar Saba, Gan Yavne, Or Yehuda, Nesher and Givat Shmuel.

Access to the websites of the Israeli Opera and of the Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera were also disrupted.

“Darkcoder” also targeted the Israel Teachers Union’s website, replacing the content with images from last week’s Hamas-orchestrated march on the Israel-Gaza Strip border, Palestinian flags and images of Jerusalem captioned “Jerusalem is the capital of Palestine.”

The Teachers Union confirmed that its website had been hacked, saying the issue was being dealt with by Daronet Internet Solutions, which maintains the site.

“The Teachers Union is one of the symbols of Israel’s success, and as such, it is a target for hostile elements,” the organization said.

“Darkcoder” boasted on Twitter, writing: “I have a message to the Zionists—you can’t stop me. Even if you report my account, even if it’s removed [by Twitter], nothing will stop me.”

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