Birdnow's Aviary

February 18, 2020

Hamas goes on fishing expedition, gets caught

Dana Mathewson

Not all the fighting in the Middle East is with guns, it seems. Hamas, the Palestinian terror group, has been upping its technological skills lately. But they haven't prevailed against the Israelis.

Hamas hackers have targeted Israeli soldiersâ€™ phones with fake social media profiles, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

On Sunday, the IDF tweeted that the Palestinian terror group created fake profiles, which included photos of women, in an attempt to hack the phones of Israeli soldiers. "What Hamas didnâ€™t know was that Israeli intelligence caught onto their plot, tracked the malware & downed Hamasâ€™ hacking system,â€ it added, with the hashtag #CatfishCaught.

"Catfishingâ€ is the creation of fake identities on social media to deceive people.

IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told Fox News that the attack was"more advancedâ€ than previous "catfish"-style hacking attempts by Hamas. The fake women, he explained, reached out to young male soldiers via Facebook, Instagram and, for the first time, the Telegram messaging app. At one point the soldiers were then asked to download a different app via direct link.Once downloaded, the soldiers' phones were infected, and the women "disappeared," according to Conricus.

The app, which is described as similar to Snapchat, used the phones' camera, locations and gave Hamas almost complete access to the soldiers' phones.

The hacking attempt by Hamas displayed a new level of sophistication. "They are learning and upping their game,â€Conricus said. The fake profiles described the young women as new immigrants to Israel, and their messages contained spelling mistakes and Hebrew slang.

Hamas, which controls the Gaza strip, also attempted to disguise the photos used, so that they wouldn't be found using a reverse search on Google. Conricus said that thanks to the awareness of the soldiers targeted, the attack was carefully monitored by the Israeli military before being thwarted.

There's more. Go here https://www.foxnews.com/tech/hamas-hackers-attempted-to-catfish-israeli-soldiers to read it.

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at 04:55 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 We sure do live in an era of deceit and fraud. Glad the Israelis caught on quickly. Of course, how do a bunch of goat herders outwit a tech savvy bunch like the Israelis?

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at February 19, 2020 08:32 AM (tnMhN)

2 You've got to get up really early to outwit the Israelis. In fact, it's probably better if you don't even go to bed.

Posted by: Dana Mathewson at February 19, 2020 11:46 AM (rIYC+)

3 Agreed, Dana!

Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at February 19, 2020 12:08 PM (tnMhN)

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