U.S. Jewish Groups Facing ‘More Agressive Effort’ From Hackers, Alert Says
Image by Getty Images
U.S. Jewish groups face “a more concerted and aggressive effort” from Internet hackers, the national community’s security arm said in an alert.
“It is imperative that all IT departments understand how to mitigate the threat and are up-to-date on the necessary technologies and processes to use in order to be proactive and prevent these incidents,” said an alert Tuesday from the Secure Community Network, an affiliate of the Jewish Federations of North America and of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
“It is apparent that we are currently facing a more concerted and aggressive effort by those attempting to disrupt and deface organizations’ websites and networks,” the alert said.
The alert cited three recent cyber attacks. In one case, an organization’s website was “replaced by a Palestinian flag with the superimposed image of an apparent jihadist displaying a rifle.” The group claiming responsibility called itself CoIDZ.
In another, the alert said, “a group referring to itself as the ‘Blackbirds’ hacked the website of a school and defaced it with anti-Israel rhetoric.” And in a third incident, a Jewish organization’s website redirected to pornography.
Separately, the alert reported that two Jewish federations had been targeted by a credit card scam.
In one case, it said, “the Federation received an $8,100 donation from someone named Davon White. The ‘donor’ then indicated that they made an error and their intention was to provide a gift for $810.00. The alleged donor then requested a refund to a credit card they provided.”
In such cases, SCN urged targets to inform credit card agencies and the FBI.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
