In the Wars of Penetration, This Is How the Israeli Executioner Became a Victim of Hamas

Murad Jandali | 2 years ago

12

Print

Share

The Israeli occupation army recently revealed the success of the Hamas cyber operations in hacking dozens of soldiers' mobile phones through gaming apps.

In a report published on July 03, 2022, the Israeli Channel 12 announced, "Dozens of hacking attempts were thwarted, but dozens of attempts were also successful."

Time after time, the Israeli occupation intelligence is surprised by the non-stop attempts of the Resistance to obtain this information through the fall of its soldiers in security ambushes set up by the Palestinian Resistance for them.

Meanwhile, many praised Hamas' cyber efforts, with an increase in the Palestinian Resistance's intelligence capabilities, which indicates the tremendous electronic savvy and intelligence that the Resistance has developed over the past years.

 

Repeated Attacks

In its report, the Israeli channel 12 stated that "members of the electronic hacking unit of the Hamas movement hacked the phones of dozens of Israeli soldiers, after impersonating Israeli girls through social media platforms, and then sending a link to a gaming app developed by Hamas technicians to be a Trojan horse that controls phones if opened."

An officer in the Information Security Formation of the Israeli General Security Service (Shin Bet) stated that "these fake profiles asked the soldiers to download a game app that was prepared in advance to infiltrate phones by clicking to download it, thus allowing the attackers to fully control the soldiers' phones."

"Hamas has developed an app that appears normal at first glance, but members of the movement are using fake profiles of girls to convince soldiers in the army to download the app on their phones," she added.

Nir Dvori, the military correspondent for the Israeli Channel 12, revealed that "the attempts of the continuous security resistance cause an alarm among the information security systems of the Occupation army, which continue to thwart dozens of Palestinian penetration attempts, but dozens, on the other hand, also cause successes, which may cause serious damage to sensitive military information."

"Israeli assessments indicate that there will be more attempts by Hamas, which constantly seeks to disrupt Israeli security capabilities, although the Israeli intelligence uses technological means specialized in the cyber dimension and designed to detect infiltration and espionage attempts," he said.

"Despite the disclosure of several such attempts by Hamas in the past, this time, the movement also continues to carry out a focused operation to hack and track the phones of dozens of Israeli soldiers," Dvori added.

 

Honey Trap

In recent years, the Israeli Occupation revealed great efforts made by Hamas and its military wing in hacking hundreds of phones of officers and soldiers and obtaining video recordings and photos of military sites and bases.

In February 2020, the Occupation army said that the phones of dozens of its soldiers were hacked by activists from the movement pretending to be women.

"Honey trap" operation, as described by Zak Doffman, who explained in Forbes how Hamas trapped Israeli soldiers by chatting on social media platforms, which has been described as the latest in a series of ongoing cyber-attacks launched by Hamas against 'Israel.'

In turn, the IDF spokesperson explained, "Hamas penetrated the soldiers' phones through three dating apps that transmit information from the phones, including the camera and play the recorder on the phones."

At that time, the American information security company Check Point completed a report on Hamas' hacking capabilities and a technical analysis of the malware it used in that hack.

The American company added in its report that "this is the third penetration of its kind by Hamas in three and a half years."

On the other hand, Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said that "the war of minds continues between the Resistance and the Occupation in the context of a full confrontation with it," stressing that "the intelligence mind of the Resistance proved its ability to confront the Occupation security services, which was embodied in previous battles."

In July 2018, the Washington Post reported that "Hamas technicians used the Fitness app as a gateway to access the personal secrets of Israeli soldiers, and through the app, they identified the phone numbers of those soldiers, and the moment they got those numbers, they started sending out requests to soldiers and others to download apps that contained the Trojan horse.

In June 2018, just before the opening of the World Cup, a free app called 'Golden Cup' appeared on the Google Play store, which provides live reports on football matches, photos, and clips of memorable goals.

"Nothing on the surface calls for suspicion, but when the Israeli soldiers installed this application on their phones, they became vulnerable to record all their calls, identities, and locations, hack all their files, and even turn on the microphone and camera at any time and record what is happening in their surroundings without their knowledge," according to what The Independent reported.

In January 2017, the Israeli Intelligence and Army admitted that Hamas had succeeded in eavesdropping on the communications of Israeli officers and soldiers, considering this intrusion a very dangerous development.

The Times of Israel newspaper reported at the time that "the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, hacked the phones of Israeli officers and soldiers in the regular army and reserves, and officers in the field staff and the General Staff, and that she managed to do this through fake accounts on social media platforms filled with images of beautiful girls.

 

Cyber War

For several years, the Israeli electronic defense units expected that Hamas would work to launch other, more sophisticated and focused applications.

In particular, Hamas was able, in some cases, to film what was happening on IDF military bases without the soldiers knowing that their phones had been hacked, according to the SOFREP website, which is run by elite US Navy veterans.

The official spokesman for the Israeli army stressed that "these applications could jeopardize any military information that the soldiers are close to or within the range of their phones."

Rather, Hamas has tried to hack IDF drones and cameras and use its videos to locate military gatherings, which could help it launch more accurate missile attacks, writes Scott Ikeda in CPO magazine, which specializes in cybersecurity news.

In turn, Haaretz correspondent Yaniv Kubovich quoted some workers in the industry that "Hamas is the most developed non-state organization in cyber security."

Investigations conducted by Internet expert Yaron Edan, owner of EDAN Worldwide Cyber Security, concluded that "cyber-attacks targeting 'Israel' are no longer aimed at closing or defacing websites, but rather cover all intentions, purposes, and fields."

"Hamas can develop its capabilities using the tools available on the dark web and even the regular web. There are no limits. Of course, there are loopholes," Edan added.

The Globes newspaper quoted a source in the Israeli cyber sector as saying: "Hamas' successes are real. They know how to entice users to click on all kinds of links, download all kinds of things to their computers, and break into systems whose servers haven't updated."

In turn, Palestinian journalist Mohamed al-Zanin explained in a statement to Al-Estiklal that "at a time when the Occupation security services are trying to obtain intelligence information about the Palestinian reality by recruiting agents and spies; the Palestinian Resistance, on its part, continues its operations to obtain information about the Occupation army through penetrations of its soldiers' phones and computers."

"The Palestinian Resistance has tried over the past years to penetrate the Israeli cyber security, as it has often succeeded in gaining access to important information, which is an indication of the strength and development of the Palestinian Resistance's cyber and digital intelligence weapons," he added.

"The intelligence battle between the Palestinian Resistance and the Israeli Occupation continues and has not stopped despite the cessation of military escalation and wars between the two sides," Mr. al-Zanin pointed out.

"The Palestinian Resistance seeks to implement its intelligence capabilities and obtain important security information, which paves the way for it to achieve successful strikes and operations during any Israeli security escalation. On the other hand, the Israeli army always seeks to access the infrastructure of the Palestinian Resistance, especially its communications network," he continued.

Mr. al-Zaanin concluded that "the Resistance has several goals from these cyber-attacks against the Israeli Occupation; the first is to obtain intelligence information that can be used in the field and military battle, and the other is sending messages to the Israeli society, and trying to pressure and influence its internal front, for example, regarding the issue of captured Israeli soldiers or during the Israeli escalations against the Palestinians."

With repeated cyber-attacks bearing the imprint of Hamas, the Israelis fear that all they have faced so far is only the tip of the iceberg and anticipate the recurrence of future attacks that may target more sensitive individuals or institutions using more technologically advanced means.

The truth that 'Israel' and Hamas realize now more than ever is that a cyber-attack can have devastating effects not only in the virtual world but also in the real world, to the point of paralyzing the movement of the state and putting its citizens in physical danger, as Seth Cropsey writes at the Hudson Institute.