Saudi Arabian authorities on Wednesday, Jan 18, denied claims that Israeli hackers crippled the website of the oil-rich country's capital market, saying the system was operating normally, Haaretz reported.

Israeli hackers claimed they brought down the websites of both the Saudi Stock Exchange (Tadawul) and the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) on Tuesday, in the latest episode of a continuing cyber war between hackers in Israel and other countries.

The Saudi authorities, in a statement issued Wednesday, said that sophisticated security protection was being enforced.

The Israeli hackers, who go by the name IDF-Team, said on Tuesday they were able to paralyze the Tadawul website, while causing significant delays to the ADX exchange site.

The hackers wrote that the attack came in response to the “pathetic” hacking of Israeli sites on Monday, in which a group of hackers calling themselves the “nightmare group" caused disruption to the El Al and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange websites.