[News] Hamas Is Using Dating Apps to Hack Israeli Soldiers

[Anti-Imperialist News]

http://www.newsweek.com/hamas-using-dating-apps-hack-israeli-soldiers-1007828 



  Hamas Is Using Dating Apps to Hack Israeli Soldiers

By David Brenna - July 4,2018
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Palestinian militant group Hamas is using fake dating and World Cup 
update apps to hack into the smartphones of Israeli soldiers and turn 
them into spying devices, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has said.

If soldiers downloaded the fake apps, it would give Hamas operatives the 
ability to see a user’s location and contact list. It would also allow 
the app’s creator to use the phone as a listening device and video 
camera, /The Times of Israel/ 
<https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-warns-soldiers-hamas-trying-to-spy-on-them-with-fake-dating-world-cup-apps/> 
reported.

The IDF said hundreds of its soldiers were contacted by imitation 
Facebook accounts, usually using stolen pictures to pose as young women, 
asking to talk on WhatsApp <http://newsweek.com/topic/whatsapp>. They 
were then asked to download one of two fake dating apps named WinkChat 
and GlanceLove. Intelligence officers said those running the fake 
accounts were not necessarily based in Gaza, the coastal enclave 
controlled by Hamas.

“Whatever you can do with your phone, the malicious content can do,” an 
official in the IDF intelligence directorate told reporters at a 
briefing 
<https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/03/israel-hamas-created-fake-dating-apps-to-hack-soldiers-phones> 
Tuesday. He also said a third app—Golden Cup—was found posing as a World 
Cup live scores and fixtures resource.

Advertised on Facebook <http://www.newsweek.com/topic/facebook> in 
Hebrew, the program could stream matches and highlights from past 
fixtures and included details about competing teams. One intelligence 
official said the app was “actually a very good one.”

All three apps targeted Android devices and were listed on the Google 
Play store, although have now been removed. Officials said they were 
reported by soldiers and did not cause any “security damage at 
all.” Fewer than 100 troops fell for the ruse, installing at least one 
of the apps on their phones. Both men and women were targeted. “What 
Hamas <http://www.newsweek.com/topic/hamas> is bringing to the table is 
a very good knowledge of our young people and their state of mind,” one 
officer told reporters.

The IDF <http://www.newsweek.com/topic/idf> had been investigating the 
hack for several months, calling its operation “Broken Heart” as it 
claimed the fake romances failed to achieve Hamas’ goal.

This is not the first time Hamas has tried to exploit lax cyber security 
among individual Israeli soldiers. In 2017 
<https://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-cyber/hamas-sets-honey-traps-to-hack-israeli-soldiers-phones-army-idUSKBN14V1ZG>, 
the group spread fake chatting apps to gain control of troops’ phone 
cameras and microphones. Using pictures of young women and Hebrew slang, 
fraudsters convinced dozens of soldiers to download the malicious program.

The Israeli military has started testing its own soldiers to see how 
cautious they are when dealing with suspicious online offers. Soldiers 
will receive fake messages from the IDF asking them to click on a link. 
If they do, a warning message appears warning them to be more careful. 
Soldiers who fall foul of the trick then have to meet with their 
commanders to go over good online security practice.

The most notorious catfishing incident of the Israeli-Palestinian 
conflict remains the murder 
<https://www.wired.com/2001/01/israels-first-internet-murder/> of a 
16-year-old Israeli boy in 2001. After weeks of chatting online, Ofir 
Rahum was lured to a meeting by Mona Jaud Awana, a 24-year-old 
Palestinian woman posing as a tourist. Awana then drove the pair to a 
prearranged spot where gunmen shot Rahum dead.

-- 
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