The phones of a few dozen Israeli soldiers have been targeted, according to the Hebrew State Army, which said on Sunday (February 16) that it had foiled the cyber attack. His spokesman Jonathan Conricus said at a press briefing that there had been "no significant loss of information".
It was the third attempted Hamas-style cyberattack in four years, the military said.
Messages supposedly from "attractive" young women were sent to the soldiers via Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Telegram, said the spokesman. It is the first time that Hamas has used Telegram, he said.
Once contact was made, soldiers were encouraged to click on a link to download an application to exchange photos.
"Clear evidence"
These applications - which the military has identified as Catch & See, ZatuApp and GrixyApp - were to infect soldiers' phones with malware and give full access to the devices.
The military did not specify by what means it had determined that the hacks were carried out by Hamas but spoke of "obvious evidence".
The attack was launched several months ago and Israel has been carrying out "defensive activity" for the past few days, without excluding reprisals, said Jonathan Conricus, without specifying the nature of the reprisals. "Hamas' hostile actions in the virtual world have repercussions in the real world," he said.
A fragile truce has been in effect since May between Israel and Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. Three wars have opposed the two camps since 2008.
With AFP
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