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Israel

Israeli Defense Computers Compromised By Gaza Hackers

Israeli Defense Computers Compromised By Gaza Hackers
Sagi Cohen

TEL AVIV — Just last week at the Davos summit, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was publicly praising the hi-tech industry in Israel. Now it seems his compliments may have been a bit premature.

A new report says that Palestinian hackers from Gaza have recently launched a cyber-attack on Israel that has successfully targeted government agencies, according to the Israeli information security company Seculert.

A number of publicly-run and funded organizations have been infected with a computer virus that allowed the hackers to access the devices from a distance.

One of the attacked organisations was the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria, a branch of the Defense Ministry. “The attack was particularly worrying because this administration is responsible for issuing permits to enter Israel,” explains a company official.

The damage that was caused was significant: Over the past several weeks, the hackers had complete control of the computers belonging to these public institutions. Officials believe that those responsible for the attack were a group of hackers from Gaza — the same group that attacked the Israeli police in October 2012 with a Trojan horse malware. That attack forced the Police to temporarily disconnect all their computers from the Internet.

This time, the hackers sent a bogus email to different Israeli organizations that appeared to be from the Shin Bet — the Israeli internal security service — purporting to contain information about an impending terror attack. The moment the files were opened, an invisible application was launched that allowed the hackers to control the computers.

A spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces said in response: “The issue is being checked.”

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Migrant Lives

What's Driving More Venezuelans To Migrate To The U.S.

With dimmed hopes of a transition from the economic crisis and repressive regime of Nicolas Maduro, many Venezuelans increasingly see the United States, rather than Latin America, as the place to rebuild a life..

Photo of a family of Migrants from Venezuela crossing the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum​

Migrants from Venezuela crossed the Rio Grande between Mexico and the U.S. to surrender to the border patrol with the intention of requesting humanitarian asylum.

Julio Borges

-Analysis-

Migration has too many elements to count. Beyond the matter of leaving your homeland, the process creates a gaping emptiness inside the migrant — and outside, in their lives. If forced upon someone, it can cause psychological and anthropological harm, as it involves the destruction of roots. That's in fact the case of millions of Venezuelans who have left their country without plans for the future or pleasurable intentions.

Their experience is comparable to paddling desperately in shark-infested waters. As many Mexicans will concur, it is one thing to take a plane, and another to pay a coyote to smuggle you to some place 'safe.'

Venezuela's mass emigration of recent years has evolved in time. Initially, it was the middle and upper classes and especially their youth, migrating to escape the socialist regime's socio-political and economic policies. Evidently, they sought countries with better work, study and business opportunities like the United States, Panama or Spain. The process intensified after 2017 when the regime's erosion of democratic structures and unrelenting economic vandalism were harming all Venezuelans.

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