Ramallah - "Jerusalem" dot com - The technical teams emanating from the investigation committee charged with uncovering the circumstances of the "cyber" attack on the Ministry of Health's servers were able to retrieve all the files targeted by hacking, by following special criteria that led to identifying the source, nature and containment of the attack.

The committee revealed, in a statement issued on Friday evening, that the source of the attack was external, not internal, in the context of a cyber attack that targeted the Palestinian “cyber” domain during the past weeks, which led to the exposure of information systems and databases in the Ministry of Health, and a number of public and private institutions to encryption. , with the so-called "ransom virus" known worldwide; However, the protection systems in some of the targeted institutions prevented the hackers from penetrating them.

The committee, which was formed by a decision of the Council of Ministers and headed by the Minister of Interior, Major General Ziyad Hab Al-Rih, affirmed that its technical teams for the cyber security team, consisting of: the police, the Preventive Security, the General Intelligence, the Ministry of Communications, and the General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers; Supervised by the Committee’s Rapporteur, Director General of Police, Major General Youssef Al-Helou, it succeeded, after continuous work without interruption, around the clock, by working to create a safe environment, decrypting the target systems, restoring all pirated data, and restarting it 100% until 8/25. It is the day before that data was exposed to a “cyber” attack, by working to develop an immediate plan, in cooperation with the Ministry of Health and partner parties, to ensure the continued provision of services to citizens; using an alternative backup system; Within a secure cyber environment, while work was in progress to decrypt the target servers.

The committee confirmed that its investigations will continue to ensure that measures are taken to prevent a recurrence of what happened, and that it will issue its recommendations and conclusions, after completing its investigations in ministries and public institutions, to ensure the safety of storing and preserving the data of those institutions and their application of standards for the protection and safety of their electronic systems.

She expressed her thanks and appreciation to the technical teams of the security services, the Ministry of Health and its technical staff, and everyone who made an effort and contributed to restoring the systems that were hacked, and resuming the provision of services to citizens in record time.

Source: "Wafa"