The smartphones of dozens of Israeli soldiers and officers were hacked by Hamas operatives pretending to be attractive young people online Israeli military officials said on Wednesday.
Using fake profiles on social media with alluring photos members of Hamas managed to network with soldiers and officers luring them into long chats Arabic-language spokesman for the Israeli army Avichay Adraee said in a Facebook post.
“Following reports from soldiers of suspicious activity of accounts on social media an operation was launched lasting several months led by the military intelligence aimed at uncovering enemy accounts” Adraee added
“During the operation we uncovered dozens of accounts working to leak and steal information from Israeli soldiers by installing malicious programs on soldiers’ smartphones that spy and record everything” he said.
A senior intelligence officer also stated in press remarks that over the past few months dozens of soldiers and officers mostly from combat units were enticed into chatting with people they believed were young and attractive people in Israel and abroad.
He said that Hamas used Facebook as a medium to engage army personnel in conversations and encourage them to download a chat application to their cellphones.
The application for both Android and iPhone was used by Hamas to access vital data on phones including contacts personal text messages and photographs and allowed its operatives to listen to conversations and take covert photos the officer explained.
The intelligence officer also said he could not explain how those behind the hacking operation managed to hold conversations in perfect colloquial Hebrew without making grammatical mistakes.
The army however refused to reveal any more details of the hack including how it ascertained that Hamas was behind it.
