Hamas gathers intel, sensitive info on over 2,000 Israeli soldiers
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The dossiers, titled "As revenge for the killers of [the] children of Gaza" which range in length from a few to over 200 pages, contain sensitive details of the IOF members.
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Israeli police investigate the scene of a deadly explosion in Tel Aviv, Friday, July 19, 2024. (AP)
In the course of gathering intelligence, Hamas obtained comprehensive dossiers on over 2,000 Israeli Air Force members, which it titled "As revenge for the killers of [the] children of Gaza."
The full name, base or unit, ID number, cell phone number, email address, social media accounts, names of family members, and, in certain situations, passwords, license plates, credit card numbers, and bank account information are all included in each report.
The dossiers, which ranged in length from a few to over 200 pages, were recently made public once more and given to a team of international investigative reporters led by Paper Trail Media in collaboration with the German media outlets Die Zeit and ZDF, the Austrian media outlets Der Standard and Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
According to a number of experts who spoke with the group of investigative journalists, it illustrates how the failure of various Israeli entities to enforce cyber-security standards has allowed Hamas to obtain information that could expose thousands of Israeli settlers to a variety of threats, including doxing, revenge, persecution, being the target of advanced intelligence surveillance, and exposure to legal threats abroad.
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Several other sources who spoke with Haaretz disagreed, claiming that it would be simple to target them or obtain more intelligence and access to secrets using the data, which also contains information on soldiers, friends, and family.
Col. (res.) Dr. Gabi Siboni, an expert in cyber warfare, stated: "Hamas, Iran, and Hezbollah want to obtain as much information as possible. The public in Israel is constantly exposed to influence operations, and if specific people can be targeted, it is even more dangerous."
Last year, in the wake of a rise in cyber attacks against Israeli occupation websites, Ronen Bar, the head of the Israeli security agency Shin Bet, confirmed that Tel Aviv was developing the "global cyber iron dome" system in cooperation with a number of countries to identify "threats" using artificial intelligence (AI).
"The Iron Dome that the Shin Bet is developing in cyberspace is already taking its first steps, the array of alliances is emerging and it has already come into action," the i24NEWS Israeli broadcaster quoted Bar as saying at the annual International Cyber Week conference hosted by Tel Aviv University.
The Israeli security official said the Israeli occupation is "already cooperating with a number of significant countries in the field and we see the global cyber iron dome beginning to take shape."
Bar claimed that the Shin Bet was effectively using AI technology to prevent threats, adding that "the AI technology was assimilated into the Shin Bet's countermeasures machine naturally."
