A group of Iraqi hackers has reportedly carried out a massive cyber attack against dozens of Israeli websites, including that of the municipality of the western Negev city of Sderot, amid rising cyber operations targeting the regime’s companies and facilities.
Sabereen News, a Telegram news channel associated with Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), reported that the group, known as ALtahrea Team, managed to break into the websites on Monday, and took them down.
Back on July 26, social media activists said various Israeli websites went offline due to a widespread cyber attack that was perpetrated by the same Iraqi group.
Among the affected sites were the Lifters website, the Nadlan World website, and the website of the Liam Group.
Iraqi hackers posted a picture of Iran’s top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated along with his Iraqi comrade Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of the PMU, in a US drone strike authorized by former president Donald Trump near Baghdad International Airport on January 3, 2020.
They also placed a tab in order to play the official anthem of the Iraqi PMU, better known by the Arabic word Hashd al-Sha’abi, on the defaced Israeli websites.
Sabereen News reported on July 11 that ALtahrea Team had managed to break into the Tel Aviv municipality website and take it down, a week after a similar cyber attack on NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System Ltd., which is responsible for the design and construction of a mass transit system in the coastal Israeli city.
“Does not work; it's suspended by order of General Qassem Soleimani,” read the message posted on the Tel Aviv Municipality website at the time it was hacked.
In a similar incident, Israel’s NTA Metropolitan Mass Transit System Ltd, the company building the light rail network for the Tel Aviv area, said last month that its website was temporarily disrupted by a foreign cyber attack.