Hamas 'jars of honey'

Text by: Dominique Desaunay Follow

The smartphones of many Israeli soldiers, some of whom were on mission on the Gaza Strip, are said to have been hacked by the Palestinian Hamas movement, the Israeli military says.

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Hundreds of soldiers have fallen into a large computer trap, according to the Israeli staff. But the IDF claims to have stopped these threats in time , tracked down contaminated applications, and then dismantled the network infrastructure behind the cyber attacks on mobile. The method of phishing used by Hamas bears the poetic name of "honey pot".

" This technique is a classic of online piracy," says Ivan Kwiatkowski, cybersecurity expert at Kaspersky. It is part of the arsenal of certain players who specialize not in cybercrime, but in intelligence operations. To do this, they will solicit the person directly on social networks, for example by posing as a very handsome young man or young woman, who would encourage the targeted person to install software or click on a link that contains a resource. or a computer virus. Israeli forces note that the preparation that has been made to carry out this attack is complex. They did it in advance, and worked on this operation for weeks, even months beforehand. "

False profiles of young women

Hamas hackers have gone through several social media platforms to lull the vigilance of Israeli soldiers, by creating false honeyed profiles of young “attractive” women on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and, great news, through the Telegram app, so that you can start an audio conversation with the targeted soldiers. These virtual temptresses introduced themselves as new immigrants, speaking only an approximate Hebrew, and invited their victims to download a charming photo sharing application. Serious mistake! Spy programs then contaminated their smartphones , activating the microphones and cameras of their mobiles, or retrieved the geolocation coordinates of the devices.

This is the third time that Israeli soldiers have been trapped by this method

These repeated errors tarnish the image of the “Cyber-Nation” army , a qualification often claimed by Israel , which also deploys similar technologies capable of transforming any smartphone into a spy machine.

The IDF has previously carried out operations against Hamas "honey pots". The first, called “Chasseur Network”, dates from 2017, followed by the “Heartbreaker” operation in 2018. The last one is called “Rebound” this time! However, remember that fighting against the "honey pots" that abound on social networks is not easy, and that many Internet users succumb daily to the sweet charms of virtual bees whose only objective is to gather all their data.

► Read also : Gaza: Egypt tries to ease tensions between Hamas and Israel

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• Israel
• Palestinian Territories
• Gaza
• Cybercriminality

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