A cyberattack which targeted irrigation systems in Israel which caused trouble for farms located in the Jordan Valley, is thought to be part of an every year “hacktivist” campaign which occurs every year in April. Hackers attacked both the wastewater treatment plant and farms. Some dozen farms did not to comply with the National Cyber Directorate warning to disabling certain remote connections in advance of the attack and temporary had irrigation systems that were automated shut down.

The cyberattack is an element of a larger campaign known as “OpIsrael,” which strikes during April with DDoS attacks and attempts at breach at targets across the nation. The first campaign was launched in 2013 and was initiated by hackers who were collaborating with Anonymous. The campaign has never been linked to any specific group or even a country, and has been pro-Palestinian since the beginning.

The farms that did not Jordan Valley heeded the call to temporarily block remote connections and had automated irrigation systems shut down for a period of time and forced them to change on manual irrigation. Certain security experts believe those affected had default passwords in place that made it simple for hackers to get through.

Source: cpomagazine.com