Iranian hackers have been engaged in "high-level" cyber attacks against Israel's critical infrastructure in recent weeks, officials of Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) warned.

"The teams on the ground took the necessary action to locate the hackers, stop them from reaching the critical areas of the infrastructure and thwart the breach," Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper quoted a Shin Bet Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) unit official as saying Thursday.

In mid November, during the Israeli army's "Operation Pillar of Defense" in Gaza to quell Hamas rocket fire, Israeli security officials said hackers had launched a mass cyber-warfare campaign that targeted government websites.

Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said upwards of 44 million cyber attacks on government sites were identified and thwarted since the start of the military action to halt the rocket barrage, according to a ministry statement sent to Xinhua.

The bulk of the attacks targeted the sites of the security establishment, the prime minister's office, the president's residence and the foreign ministry, the statement read.

In late October, the Israel Police also reported a cyber attack by unknown hackers.

When the attack was recognized, commanders immediately ordered police across the country to stop using removable storage devices on computers linked to the national network, and disconnected their intranet from the civilian internet in a bit to staunch the breach in the digital wall.

In comment on Israel's measures to enact a national bulwark against cyber threats, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in October that "just as we have the Iron Dome (antimissile system) to fight rockets, and security fence to prevent infiltration, we will have a similar form of defense against cyber attacks."

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is setting up an internal unit to fight cyber-warfare, with about 1 billion NIS (26 million US dollars) of investment, including recruiting promising candidates from abroad.