Sébastien Le Belzic (special correspondent in Tel Aviv) / Photo credits: THOMAS SAMSON / AFP 07:10, 02 November 2023, modified at 07:10, 02 November 2023

The conflict between Israel and Hamas is not just being played out in Gaza. On the Internet, cyberattacks against Israel are multiplying. The country, which was already targeted by this type of offensive before 7 October, is at the forefront of cyber protection. Among Israel's assets is a small group of computer geniuses called the "white hackers."

In the Middle East, Israel's response to Hamas continues. In addition to air and ground operations, the conflict is also being exported to the cyberspace front. Since October 7, attempted cyberattacks against Israel have increased. It's a battleground that Israeli engineers and hackers, nicknamed "white hackers," are used to, on the front lines of fighting hackers around the world.

David Allouch is one of those soldiers of cyberspace. A computer genius, he is the oldest hacker in Israel, an army of civilian computer scientists mobilized since the beginning of the war, capable of identifying the origin of these computer attacks.

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A Fight Close to the Front

"Most of the hacking comes from Iran now," he told Europe 1 radio. "It's more state groups that we're dealing with. They are more organized, more efficient. We still manage to spot them right away and we can see where the hackers are, where they come from, what they are doing and what computer they are going from, etc.," he continues.

A war not so far from the front after all, especially when it comes to controlling missiles. "Neutralizing a missile is not necessarily with another missile, it can also be with hacking," the computer scientist stresses.

Cyberwar 'even more widespread over the past three weeks'

Kfir Kimri is the head of a cybersecurity company. Its job is to thwart increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks. "There has always been cyberwar, we see them putting logos with the war and Hamas on websites, but it's been even more widespread in the last three weeks," the entrepreneur said.

The IDF, the Israeli army, itself has an elite unit capable of tracking down hackers in the depths of the Internet and which calls on the services of these patriotic hackers in the greatest secrecy.