14 DAY TRIAL // Anonymous has confirmed that it will continue its yearly attacks on Israeli infrastructure as part of its #OpIsrael campaign, set for tomorrow, April 7, 2015.
The first attacks part of #OpIsrael started in 2013, when certain branches of the Anonymous hacker collective decided to launch coordinated cyberattacks against Israeli websites on the eve of the Holocaust Remembrance Day, which that year fell on April 8.
Ever since then, the group has been launching similar operations each year, on the same date, and in a recent statement posted on one of its websites, it has said it will continue in 2016 as well. In spite of the fact that, this year, Holocaust Remembrance Day is on May 4, the attacks will still take place on April 7.
Israel has scheduled a hackathon on the same day
In previous years, these cyberattacks consisted of DDoS attacks, database leaks, website defacements, and social media account hijacking.
Following the recent attacks against Ukraine's electrical power grid, this year, the Israeli government has also scheduled a hackathon where over 400 participants will be tasked with fighting against a cyberattack on the country's power grid, transportation system, and government IT networks.
The hackathon, where participants will defend against this "imaginary" scenario, is coincidentally scheduled for tomorrow as well.
#OpIsrael attacks mostly fueled by pro-Palestine hackers
Since anybody can slap the Anonymous tag on his cyber-operations, Israeli intelligence agencies have said multiple times in the past that anti-Israeli groups, usually of Arab origin, are behind most of these attacks.
Taking into account that #OpIsrael 2016's campaign video spends two-thirds of the time talking about Palestine and Arab countries, Israeli officials may be right.
Even Anonymous members have admitted that this is the work of hackers of Arab descent.
"This particular team of hackers are known by 'Anonymous Arab,' which is one of the more famous hacker teams in the world and they actively participate in #OpIsrael every year," the group wrote online. The same announcement goes on to reveal that the other Anonymous divisions involved in the attack are those of AnonGhost, AnonSec, and Meca.
