Using photos of young women and Hebrew slang, the Palestinian militant group Hamas chatted up dozens of Israeli soldiers online, gaining control of their phone cameras and microphones, the military said on Wednesday.
An officer, who briefed reporters on the alleged scam, said the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip uncovered no major military secrets in the intelligence-gathering operation.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum declined to comment.
Mainly using Facebook, Hamas used fake online identities and photos of young women, apparently found on the Internet, to lure soldiers in, the officer said.
“Just a second, I’ll send you a photo, my dear,” one “woman” wrote.
“OK. Ha-ha,” the soldier replied, before a photo of a blonde woman in a swimsuit popped up.
The “woman” then suggested they both download “a simple app that lets us have a video chat,” according to an example of an exchange provided by the officer.
The officer said most of the soldiers were low-ranking and that Hamas was mostly interested in gathering information about Israeli army maneuvers, forces and weaponry in the Gaza area.
The military discovered the hacking when soldiers began reporting other suspicious online activity on social networks and uncovered dozens of fake identities used by the group to target the soldiers, the officer said.
In 2001, a 16-year-old Israeli was lured to the occupied West Bank, where he was shot dead by Palestinian gunmen, after entering into an online relationship with a Palestinian woman who posed as an American tourist.
(Additional reporting by Nidal Al-Mughrabi in Gaza)
Source : Arab News
GMT 10:54 2017 Thursday ,21 December
YouTube seals deal with top music label amid streaming movesGMT 09:48 2017 Wednesday ,20 December
Facebook lets people know when their pictures pop upGMT 14:38 2017 Tuesday ,19 December
Twitter begins enforcing rules on 'hateful, abusive' contentGMT 12:37 2017 Tuesday ,19 December
PrettyLittleThing announces PR team updatesGMT 10:24 2017 Saturday ,16 December
Facebook moves to make more video ad moneyGMT 10:06 2017 Saturday ,16 December
Email and SMS qualify as judiciary notifications in Saudi ArabiaGMT 07:05 2017 Friday ,15 December
US regulator orders rollback of 'net neutrality' rulesGMT 15:08 2017 Thursday ,14 December
Facebook accused of inaction over Russian ads in Brexit voteMaintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2023 ©
Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2023 ©