Report: Palestinians behind cyber-attacks against Israel
(JNS.org) Gaza-based Palestinian hackers are among those likely behind a spate of cyber-attacks against Israel carried out over the last two years, according to a new report by the global security software company Trend Micro.
The report, titled “Operation Arid Viper: Bypassing the Iron Dome,” was written in partnership with the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations. It found that the cyber-attackers used emails to send out malicious files intended to extract sensitive information from computers at research institutes and other Israeli institutions.
The emails contained a short pornographic video meant to distract targeted Israeli employees from the spy file while hackers collected information from the computer and made it available to a command-and-control server, where the victim’s private information was then assessed.
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Israeli economy grew by 7.2% in last quarter, report say
(JNS.org) Israel’s economy has recovered from the relative slowdown that followed last summer’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, generating 7.2-percent growth in the fourth quarter of 2014, the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) said Monday.
The third quarter of 2014 saw growth dip to 0.6 percent due to the Gaza campaign. The latest report pegged the gross domestic product of the business sector, the main growth engine for the Israeli economy, at 8.2 percent, and said that overall, the bleak predictions of negative economic growth—to the tune of negative 0.4 percent in 2014’s third fiscal quarter—were proved wrong.
The enhanced market performance of the fourth quarter of 2014 has been attributed to the rise in dollar rates and to Israeli government assistance for exporters, industrialists, and farmers, among other factors.
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Uri Orbach, Israel’s senior citizens minister, dies at 54
(JNS.org) Israeli Senior Citizens Minister Uri Orbach (Habayit Hayehudi), 54, died Monday at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where he had been hospitalized for more than a month.
Orbach had suffered from a serious blood disorder for years and was hospitalized in January after his condition took a turn for the worse. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Uri won the hearts of everyone with his charm and wisdom. He was incredibly sensitive to people, a sensitivity he brought with him to the Senior Citizens Ministry, and to anything he took interest in.”
Prior to entering politics, Orbach was a journalist, publicist, and author. In the 1980s, he was one of the founders of the religious children’s newspaper Otiyot (“Letters”). Orbach also co-founded the Kol Chai haredi radio station, was a political columnist for the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, and penned several children’s books. He became a Knesset member in 2009.
“I have lost my elder brother, a man of integrity and wisdom… There was no one else like him in the cynical world of politics,” said Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the Habayit Hayehudi party.
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