The Internet world in which we live has become an integral part of all of our lives and it is a bit difficult to imagine life without it. The advantages are clear – everything becomes easier, more available and accessible, the information is global and we know what is happening on the other side of the world within seconds. At the same time, everything is becoming digital – our relationship with the world and also our bank accounts. Now two digital banks are opening in Israel.
But alongside the benefits, of course, there are also significant risks – if until recent years theft was a robber running and stealing a bag from an old woman in the market, or physically breaking into a bank with a gun drawn, today everything is more sophisticated, the use of cash is decreasing (also due to legislation in this area) but on the other hand, cybercrime is flourishing .
This year, too, there was virtually everything: crime, information leaks, attacks against Israel, but also state activity to try and reduce the damage. “What there was not this year was a single and significant cyber event, one that we have become accustomed to seeing in recent years, such as the Xayah attack, Solarwinds or even a significant weakness such as Log4j” says Yotam Gutman, marketing director of the Israeli cyber company Sentinel One
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which was issued last year and briefly became one of the largest Israeli companies in the world (this year, like the other newly issued companies, it crashed by 74% to a market value of 3.9 billion dollars).
The war between Russia and Ukraine – Russian failure to cause cyber vulnerabilities
According to Gutman, “The war between Russia and Ukraine was the first in which significant cyber moves were made at the same time as kinetic warfare. Contrary to predictions, the Russians did not manage to cause significant damage through cyber means. It can be cautiously estimated that the Russian Cyber Command (like the entire Russian army) did not expect such a long campaign. The Russians succeeded in bringing their capabilities to light in several significant “opening moves”, in which they succeeded in disrupting communications, creating disinformation and causing psychological warfare effects. It was also evident that they did not wish to cause significant damage to the infrastructure (again, assuming that Ukraine would automatically surrender and they would gain control of But as the campaign dragged on, the impact of the Russian cyber operations diminished and on the other hand, the Ukrainians recruited volunteer hackers and attacked Russian government websites, leaked information of Russian citizens and soldiers, and tried as much as they could to hinder the Russian army from achieving its goals. It can be assumed that the last word has not been said yet. in this conflict, and that its prolongation could cause the Russian side to land more painful and devastating blows.
However, according to Gutman, “the impact of this campaign went beyond the physical borders of Ukraine. Some of the attacks caused “incidental damage” to neighboring countries (we note the impact of the Russian attack on satellite communication systems in Ukraine that paralyzed wind turbines in Germany), and some were well-planned attacks against Countries that expressed support for Ukraine (such as the Vatican or Norway) or those that due to the situation rushed to join NATO (attack on parliament in Finland). Of course we also saw the other “immediate suspects” attacking in the cyber dimension – Iran continued its semi-open struggle against Israel, China continued to attack and steal valuable information wherever they could and North Korea which focused on stealing crypto-currencies to enrich its treasury which was severely affected by sanctions.”
Who else was affected this year as a result of cybercrime?
Gutman: “Some of the cybercriminals were busy this year in the Ukrainian arena, so we saw fewer significant attacks. However, we saw a new trend in which criminal groups attack developing countries and cause a situation of chaos. The means is, again, revenge attacks, which actually result in the paralysis of the victim. The island countries Vanuatu and Guadeloupe have been hit by crippling ransom attacks, and Costa Rica has been paralyzed for many months, and there doesn’t seem to be an end to the attacks.”
Information of which companies was leaked?
“Uber, Twitter, WhatsApp, Medibank and much more. Hackers this year also succeeded in breaking into the largest organizations in the world and stealing millions of user records that include phone numbers, names, credit card numbers and more. These hacks will further fuel a wave of thefts, frauds and continued hacks for other entities in the years to come A group Lap$u$ This year stood out in that it broke into large entities and caused great embarrassment and significant financial damages.”
And what happened in Israel?
“Iranian, Palestinian, and Lebanese cyberattacks succeeded in penetrating various infrastructures in the country, stealing information and corrupting several websites, but as a rule they failed to cause real damage or panic in the public. It is evident that the public (and the media as well) are more mature and are not excited by any announcement by an unknown party on the Telegram channel about a “hacking” to hundreds of Israeli websites” (which often turns out to be a hacking of a storage server) or “stealing information of millions of Israelis (which turns out to be a cycle of data that was leaked many years ago)”.
On the other hand, Gutman points out, “The Cyber System, the Privacy Authority, the State Comptroller, and the Israel Police all worked to stop attacks, bring cybercriminals to justice, and increase enforcement and regularity, which ultimately leads to an improvement in the security of all of us. However, as the State Comptroller noted in the latest report, there are There are still significant gaps in the defense capabilities of critical infrastructures in the State of Israel.
“Often, the attackers use known weaknesses, macro files or ISO or social engineering techniques to obtain identification details of employees in the organization. Implementing an orderly update policy, banning the use of macro files, tightening control over identity management in the organization and charging users to use multi-step authentication (2FA) will significantly reduce the ability of attackers to harm organizations.
And what will happen next year? Gutman is not optimistic
Gutman: “Unfortunately, we do not expect 2023 to be fundamentally different from last year. In many ways, what we experienced this year is the “New Normal”– Endless attacks but without a single catastrophic event. But that being the case, organizations can estimate with a high degree of confidence that they will experience a cyber event next year, and prepare accordingly. A combination of modern protection systems, adherence to procedures and “hygiene.” IT“Tova should significantly reduce the chance that such an attack (which will come, with a high probability) will cause significant damage to the organization.”