Israeli Hackers Hit the Saudi Stock Market

After a relatively significant cyber security breach at the websites for the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and El Al websites, a Israeli hacker crew using the name IDF-TEAM retaliated by bringing down the website for the Saudi Arabian Stock Exchange. According to a new report from Haaretz, they succeeded even more than they anticipated in their initial Pastebin post. "Israeli hackers brought down the websites of both the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) Monday, in the latest episode of a continuing cyber war between hackers in the two countries," Haaretz reporters Oded Yaron and Iris Margulis write. "The Israeli hackers, who go by the name IDF-Team, were able to paralyze the Tadawul website, while causing significant delays to the ADX exchange site." With tensions in the region unusually high in the wake of a mounting conflict between the West and Iran, "cyber war" is not an encouraging word to see in the Israeli newspaper. Time and time again, we've learned that hackers hacking is seldom a big deal. Last year, LulzSec and Anonymous defaced some websites and stirred up trouble -- they even claim to have played a major role in the Arab Spring -- but they didn't even come close to stoking an international diplomatic crisis.