There has been a significant increase in the number of fraud and cyberattacks against Israelis in 2024, the Israel Internet Association said in a report released last week.
“This is further evidence that the war has reached the doorstep of every citizen in the country through the digital arena.
Cyberattack and harassment attempts against civilians have increased by tens of percent over the past year,” said VP of Community and Social Affairs Edan Ring.
The percentage of reports to the association’s safe internet helpline relating to cyberattacks also increased from 36% in 2023 to 45% in 2024, the ISOC-IL noted.
The most common complaint received by the organization was about social media accounts being hacked, with 27% of reports on this topic. This is a more than 20% increase from last year, the association said, adding that there were around 1,100 complaints this year.
Other common forms of internet attacks included scams (17.6% of reports), sexual offenses (11.5%), and impersonation and invasion of privacy (10.9%), it said.
The platforms on which offenses were most common included WhatsApp, with 21.7% of reports coming from incidents on this platform.
Facebook was the second most common platform with 19% of the reports, the association said, adding that this is the first time in years that Facebook has not been in the first place.
Instagram was the third leading platform, with 15.6% of complaints stemming from actions on this platform.
Hundreds of requests to remove posts
The association said that it sent hundreds of requests for removal of posts and content to platforms. Some 322 requests for the removal of content were sent to Facebook, some 98% of which were accepted, it said.
Some 137 requests were sent to TikTok, 95% of which were honored.
“The Israel Internet Association has successfully had harmful content removed from leading platforms in 94% of cases and continues to assist citizens in reporting and removing harmful content,” Ring said.
“However, the first line of defense against attacks must be the citizens themselves – by enhancing protective measures such as two-factor authentication and strong passwords, reporting directly to platforms and helplines, and increasing vigilance and caution in the virtual space.”