Israeli cellular network crashes - deliberate sabotage?

[Keit]

There is this article about the crash of Israeli cellular network. And today I heard on the news that they have no idea what caused the problem (it crashed the core system that has the data of all the customers and their numbers, etc.) and don't dismiss any possibility including sabotage. As for speculations, they mentioned that perhaps it was a cyber-attack from, you guessed right, Iran. And that perhaps Shin-Bet has to take the role of overseeing cellular infrastructure as well in addition to what ever they already oversee (telephone infrastructure, electricity, water, etc.).

Will see with what kind of explanation they are going to come up, but in my opinion it looks like either an experiment or a deliberate sabotage, or both, and not by Iran. ;)

 

[Guardian]

There is this article about the crash of Israeli cellular network. And today I heard on the news that they have no idea what caused the problem (it crashed the core system that has the data of all the customers and their numbers, etc.) and don't dismiss any possibility including sabotage. As for speculations, they mentioned that perhaps it was a cyber-attack from, you guessed right, Iran. And that perhaps Shin-Bet has to take the role of overseeing cellular infrastructure as well in addition to what ever they already oversee (telephone infrastructure, electricity, water, etc.).

Will see with what kind of explanation they are going to come up, but in my opinion it looks like either an experiment or a deliberate sabotage, or both, and not by Iran. ;)

Rumor mill says the "malfunction" was IDENTICAL to a zero-day attack. IF that's the case, whoever did it can probably do it again.

 

[Keit]

Rumor mill says the "malfunction" was IDENTICAL to a zero-day attack. IF that's the case, whoever did it can probably do it again.

There appear to be two main theories. First, that the crash was as a result of botched update:

The Cellcom network failure that left the company's 3.3 million customers without phone service for a day apparently was caused by the company's switching department, various sources said. Employees from the department, which is within the engineering division, let a script they had written run overnight on Tuesday - a typical occurrence for a corporate programming department. The new bit of code was supposed to enable the company's customer database to incorporate data on new services.

While the code had worked properly in a testing environment, once it went live, it destroyed the company's data. Data on customers disappeared, preventing the network from identifying cell phone users and connecting their calls.

Second, that it was a cyber attack.

Computer experts are worried that this could have been a successful trial run of a cyber attack against Israel.[...] According to some reports, the cause may have been maintenance work on the day before the breakdown, but sabotage is possible. Boaz Dolev, a former head of the government's internet service and now a consultant on computer security to the private sector, said that "the breakdown has the hallmark of an outside cyber-attack".

Israeli experts believe hostile countries may be targeting private communications firms that do not have the same level of software protection as the national infrastructure companies.

Cellcom, by the way, still doesn't know (or this is what they say) what caused the nationwide crash. And communications minister ordered inquiry into the matter.

I do have a feeling that it was a test run, but performed by rather "inner" hostile sources than outer.

The same goes with the greatest fire disaster in Israel. Can't shake the feeling that it was also a test run of some sort (emergency response and handing of the situation maybe), especially when you hear relatives of those who died in the fire saying that "what happened here was human experimentation." Netanyahu is also strongly against the official inquiry.

Wouldn't be surprised if someone in the Mossad or Shin Bet had an idea that it would be great to test their abilities or strategies on home ground.

 

[Keit]

Here is the following from the article about Mossad sabotaging Egypt's internet:

Hassan, who according to the Egyptian press, was the contact between the Israeli handler and a Mossad spy working in Lebanon managed to collect supposedly classified information which is considered to be of critical importance for Syrian security services.

In the last few days it has been claimed that he published internet ads through which he tried to recruit agents for the Mossad among Syrian and Lebanese cellular company employees.

 

[Keit]

Just wanted to add to this thread couple of other events that happened in Israel lately that may be just signs of the times, but maybe also an indication of some sort of "testing the response of the populace" going on. It's a mere speculation, of course, so fwiw.

There is this article about the largest-ever nationwide war drill to be conducted on 9th of June.

Also, there is a story of serious water contamination in Kiryat Motzkin (in the North of the country). They say it could be sewage that leached into the water, but no one knows about the real source of the problem, and as one of the residents told me yesterday (she has a friend who works in the local municipality), no one knows what happened and how to fix it.

And just now read on Israeli news forum that Ben-Gurion airport gave an order to halt all the take offs due to fuel contamination. Something like this happened before, almost exactly 6 years ago.

edit: added link

 

[treesparrow]

And just now read on Israeli news forum that Ben-Gurion airport gave an order to halt all the take offs due to fuel contamination. Something like this happened before, almost exactly 6 years ago.

edit: added link

And who can they blame? No prizes for guessing - it's the TERRORISTS again! They have flogged this particular dead horse so much now that only the skeleton remains. Yet many (most?) people will still buy into this explanation. Pump up the fear factor when ever politically useful, such as now, when the leaders of the different Palestinian factions seem to be uniting.

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Israel grounds ALL its planes over contaminated aviation fuel terrorism fears

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1383914/All-flights-Israel-grounded-contaminated-fuel-fears.html

 

[Keit]

And who can they blame? No prizes for guessing - it's the TERRORISTS again! They have flogged this particular dead horse so much now that only the skeleton remains. Yet many (most?) people will still buy into this explanation. Pump up the fear factor when ever politically useful, such as now, when the leaders of the different Palestinian factions seem to be uniting.

Interesting, because the terror angle isn't mentioned in Israeli news items on the topic. Not yet anyway. I have Israeli news right now in the background, so will see if they mention anything like this. In any case, apparently the problem is nationwide now, and "buses and trucks reportedly affected". Will see how it will unfold. Here is what the article says:

The symptoms of the contaminated jet fuel which halted flights out of Ben-Gurion International Airport on Thursday were seen in recent weeks in buses and trucks across Israel, TheMarker reported.

The contaminated fuel contains unidentified greasy liquid parts that get stuck in the filter of gas pipelines, damaging the tank of the vehicle. This same type of fuel is what halted flights departing from Ben-Gurion airport, stranding thousands of passengers awaiting information on their flights

The biological Institute in Nes Tziona was summoned a few days ago to take samples at a fuel terminal in Israel's central region.

It looks like an interesting coincidence that both water and fuel contaminations are happening at the same time. Surprised that they didn't label it as terror attack yet!

Added: But just saw an ad on TV from Home Front Command that advices to know the location of the nearest shelter and be prepared. Maybe it's part of preparations for the big war drill.

 

[Keit]

According to Haaretz, they don't see the incident as terror related:

_http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/israel-has-enough-fuel-to-renew-all-flights-official-says-1.360204

Speaking of the possibility that the airport's gas supplies were maliciously contaminated, Kandel said late Thursday that testing has revealed that the cause of the contamination was not sabotage or terrorism.

However, the source of the pollutant is still unknown at this time, Kandel said.

The same was said about the water contamination. If it's not some sort of test, then wonder if it's not something in the air or perhaps some other mysterious buildup of substances in various filters that contribute to those contaminations.