Hackers steal over 50gb of data, including personal details of scientists and officials, claim Israeli media
A group of hackers said to be linked to Iran has revealed personal details of an Israeli nuclear scientist and a former senior defence official, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, along with “personal photos and documents allegedly obtained by breaching the accounts of several senior Israeli officials”.
According to the paper:
The National Cyber Directorate declined to comment and referred inquiries to the Prime Minister’s Office. The Shin Bet security service also offered no response.
Among the reported targets was “a former major general who previously headed the military’s cyber operations before serving as Defence Ministry director-general,” whose passport photo was published. The Handala hacker group, whiich claims to have also stolen data in March from Israel’s Negev Nuclear Research Centre, has threatened to release its full cache of documents.
The latest alleged hack saw the release of around thirty images claimed to be from the Soreq Nuclear Research Centre, but the paper reported that these were not of the facility but were taken from a nuclear scientist’s phone or email, including system screenshots of an Israeli particle accelerator and revealed the personal information of a number of other scientists working there.
The group also released personal information,
belonging to a current Israeli ambassador and a former military attaché in the United States, as well as information about family members of senior Israeli officials.
The paper described the hack as a ‘significant psychological victory’ for Iran and noted that ‘dozens’ of Israelis have been charged with ‘acting on behalf of Iranian intelligence’ to target officials and nuclear experts:
Recent months have seen dozens of Israelis indicted for allegedly acting on behalf of Iranian intelligence to target senior Israeli officials, including a nuclear scientist. While any connection between these arrests and the current leak remains unclear, successfully targeting an Israeli scientist – even one involved in civilian nuclear research – would represent a significant psychological victory for Iran.
However, given Israel’s attempts to get the US to aid in attacking Iranian nuclear facilities, the question also needs to be considered whether the hack might be an attempt to manufacture a ‘casus belli’ to allow the US to justify a joint attack on Iran’s own nuclear development facilities – potentially a cyber attack, given that these are reportedly scattered and deep underground.
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However, given Israel’s attempts to get the US to aid in attacking Iranian nuclear facilities, the question also needs to be considered whether the hack might be an attempt to manufacture a ‘casus belli’ to allow the US to justify a joint attack on Iran’s own nuclear development facilities – potentially a cyber attack, given that these are reportedly scattered and deep underground.
This from Avigail Abarbanel, herself an Israeli, certainly lends some weight to that notion:
Few people are aware that all media outlets in Israel have to clear the military censor, before they can publish anything that is not just superficial gossip, or fluffy trash. If more was translated into English or other languages, perhaps things would be different. But Israel carefully controls what is translated, and everyone there knows not to ‘air the dirty laundry’.
What Israeli Jews say to one another is very different from what they would allow themselves to say to anyone who is not Jewish, or who does not live in Israel. Even progressive, otherwise excellent publications like +972, which is published from inside Israel are often careful about what they say, and how they say it. I can read between the lines, and I recognise the signs of self-censorship.
Before you mention Haaretz, you need to know that it is a Zionist and fundamentally loyalist newspaper. Even its name is deeply Zionist. Ha’aretz literally means ‘the land’. But in Hebrew the word Haaretz has a possessive meaning. It does not just mean ‘the land’. It means ‘our land’. Israeli Jews do not refer to Israel as Israel. They call it ‘haaretz’.
For years, talking to my brother there I would refer to Israel as ‘Israel’, and that would come across as very strange. To refer to the country by its name rather than by the possessive term, automatically set me apart as someone who did not belong. To say ‘haaretz’ in Hebrew is a way of stating your belonging.
Haaretz newspaper does not do anything that does not serve Israel. It publishes dissent, because its job is to promote Israel’s image as a democracy that is open to self-scrutiny and reflection. Hardly anyone reads Haaretz in Israel. It is a newspaper whose readership is mostly from outside Israel. When Israel no longer needs this kind of image promotion, the authorities will either close the newspaper, or will force it to get rid of dissenting writers like Gideon Levy. Gideon knows he is on borrowed time. He knows Israel as well as I do.
https://avigail.substack.com/p/spilling-the-dirty-laundry-on-israel
Thank you PW. Avigail Abarbanel’s words are powerful and moving.