The hacker group called Darkbit went after the Technion for ‘nationalist reasons’
The Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa said on Sunday that its computer servers had been targeted by a cyberattack.
Also known as the Technion, the institute’s website went down and students were asked to log off.
“Last night we received a message from Technion informing us that it’s a disaster… None of the Technion’s websites are working anymore. And as we are in the middle of exams, no one knows how we are going to do it”, said Noam, a first-year student.
According to the Walla news site, the cyberattack was carried out by a group called Darkbit, which demanded 80 bitcoins from Technion, which is equivalent to $1,747,971. Technion, which is the flagship of scientific research in Israel and trains thousands of high-level engineers every year, apologized for the incident.
“Technion was hacked. The hackers punished us for the ‘apartheid’ regime. All systems are not accessible and we have lost our data. Therefore, we have to temporarily stop our human resources procedures. Our most sincere apologies to all colleagues, partners and those who trust us,” Technion said on its LinkedIn account.
“Apparently, the group attacked Technion for nationalistic reasons. They demand a payment of 80 bitcoins in order to free the computers from the ransomware that infected them,” cyber intelligence researcher Tom Malka told Walla.
“It is likely that a cyber incident response team will investigate this event, verify the number of infected computers, find the penetration point and the date the attackers first gained access to the computers, and close the loophole which allowed the attackers to take control of the computers. If the hackers still do not have real control of the computer system and the security hole is closed, it is recommended not to pay the ransom,” he added.
“A Technion hack is an earthquake. We have long been warning of a dramatic rise in the number of hacks in businesses and organizations, only a few of which reach the media,” said Anar Yazraeli, Head of Information Security at TORQ Corporation.
