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Security Cellphones Social Networks The Military

Hamas 'Honey Trap' Dupes Israeli Soldiers (securityweek.com) 109

Posted by EditorDavid from the soldier-social-media dept.
wiredmikey quotes Security Week: The smartphones of dozens of Israeli soldiers were hacked by Hamas militants pretending to be attractive young women online, an Israeli military official said Wednesday. Using fake profiles on Facebook with alluring photos, Hamas members contacted the soldiers via groups on the social network, luring them into long chats, the official told journalists on condition of anonymity.

Dozens of the predominantly lower-ranked soldiers were convinced enough by the honey trap to download fake applications which enabled Hamas to take control of their phones, according to the official.
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Hamas 'Honey Trap' Dupes Israeli Soldiers More

Hamas 'Honey Trap' Dupes Israeli Soldiers

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  • Dozens! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    How will Israel ever recover?!

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      By killing some Palestinians, taking some land, and building a settlement on it. It's only the justification that varies: Cyber-terrorists?

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Shane_Optima ( 4414539 )
        This is Hamas we're talking about here. They're based in Gaza, not the West Bank. Israel has not "taken" any land in Gaza for a very long time. On the contrary, they withdrew entirely from Gaza in 2005, and it was this withdrawal that allowed the murderous Hamas party to be immediately voted into power.

        Now please, let's move on to your next talking about the blockade or perhaps "the world's largest open-air prison" so that I can remind everyone of Gaza's other border.

        • Re: Dozens! (Score:3, Insightful)

          by Anonymous Coward

          That's a pretty one-sided version of events. Israel denies Gazans airspace, access to their coastline, and blocks imports. Palestinian children are stunted growth because the Israeli government blocked even pasta from coming in.

          And yes, Palestinians elected Hamas because they wanted to throw out the existing corrupt party, and since Israelis elected a right winger who said he'd force concessions from Palestinians they voted the same right back.

          • Re: Dozens! (Score:4, Informative)

            by dunkelfalke ( 91624 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @08:34PM (#53669615)

            And why shouldn't Israel do that? After all Hamas denies Israel and its population the right to exist.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by nbauman ( 624611 )

              http://www.theatlantic.com/int... [theatlantic.com]
              Who Started the Israel-Gaza Conflict?
              By Robert Wright
              Nov 16 2012,
              A summary of events in the renewal of Israeli-Palestinian hostilities, Nov 8 - Nov 15
              By Emily Hauser
              There's a constant back and forth, and on both sides, there's always something or someone to avenge.
              According to Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as of November 13, Palestinian militants had fired 797 rockets into Israel in the course of 2012 , and according to the Israeli human rights organization Btselem,

          • Re: Dozens! (Score:4, Insightful)

            by Shane_Optima ( 4414539 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @10:54PM (#53670037) Journal
            Ah, I see we're at the second talking point already.

            Why can't they get their food and other imports from Egypt, with whom they share a common border (as well as a common language, ethnicity and religion)? Where are the legions of delusional and astroturfing internet trolls protesting Egypt's blockade? Why is everything automagically the Jews' fault, every goddamn time?

            Hamas, the democratically elected government of Gaza, has sworn to kill all Jews. Not just Israelis, Jews. It's thus entirely reasonable for Israeli to deny Nazi Germany's retarded little brother[1] access to all imports from their side (but of course, they don't even go nearly that far.)

            1. My profound apologies to both actual retards and actual Nazis for the comparison.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by nbauman ( 624611 )

              Why can't they get their food and other imports from Egypt

              Because the Israeli and US government have both put pressure on Egypt not to allow free flow across the border.

              Egypt is the second largest recipient of US aid, after Israel.

              • Re: Dozens! (Score:4, Interesting)

                by Shane_Optima ( 4414539 ) on Sunday January 15, 2017 @06:12PM (#53673417) Journal
                Of food? The USA will cut off all aid and risk allowing Islamist goons to take over Egypt if they send food into Gaza? Uh huh.

                If one cares about helping the people of Gaza, the logical route is to go through Egypt, who regardless of any American pressures that may exist do not have the real or imagined prejudices that the Israelis do. The tactic to use, if this were really about helping the Palestinians (as opposed to it being primarily about screwing with Israel for the nth time) would be to shame Egyptians into acting, to never stop talking about the Egyptian blockade of Gaza. Regardless of whether or not US pressure is involved, this tactic stands a far, far greater chance of actually working and helping all of those millions of stunted Palestinian children the OP alleged.

                It's a test of intellectual honesty, one of many tests that the popular Palestinian rights movement fails at spectacularly. The Egyptians are not only equally complicit, they are (at least in theory) much easier to persuade than the Zionist Entity. The null hypothesis is that this is a cocktail of masochistic bullshit invented for political purposes, and you've failed to reject that null hypothesis.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by nbauman ( 624611 )

            That's a pretty one-sided version of events. Israel denies Gazans airspace, access to their coastline, and blocks imports. Palestinian children are stunted growth because the Israeli government blocked even pasta from coming in.

            And yes, Palestinians elected Hamas because they wanted to throw out the existing corrupt party, and since Israelis elected a right winger who said he'd force concessions from Palestinians they voted the same right back.

            That's correct. Israel is blockading Gaza. A blockade is an act of war, under international law. A country that is being attacked has a right to defend itself.

            I would like both sides to strictly follow international law and abide by humanitarian principles and human rights, but neither side is doing that. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are correct to condemn Hamas for targeting civilians, but they are also correct to condemn Israel for doing the same thing.

            The main difference between Hamas and

            • A country that is being attacked has a right to defend itself.

              Exactly.

              That's correct. Israel is blockading Gaza. A blockade is an act of war, under international law.

              Which is an example of a country defending itself from outside attackers. Did you already forget the 1000s of rockets fired at Israel not long ago?

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by nbauman ( 624611 )

                As I documented in those articles I posted, the ratio of Palestinians killed to Israelis killed is about ten to one. Most of those thousands of rockets fall harmlessly without injuring anyone. A few of them injured Israelis, and even fewer killed Israelis. The Israelis respond with massive retaliation, killing dozens, hundreds or thousands of Palestinians.

                As I also documented, the Palestinians have made many proposals to stop the fighting, and Israel has responded by killing the Palestinians who made peace

                • As I documented in those articles I posted, the ratio of Palestinians killed to Israelis killed is about ten to one. Most of those thousands of rockets fall harmlessly without injuring anyone. A few of them injured Israelis, and even fewer killed Israelis. The Israelis respond with massive retaliation, killing dozens, hundreds or thousands of Palestinians.

                  Meaningless statistic. Being better at war isn't a crime. Firing rockets is an act of war, even if they are destroyed. Do you expect an aircraft carrier to sit and let an enemy boat fire missiles at it all day and not respond because the CWS is able to take out the missiles?

                  As I also documented, the Palestinians have made many proposals to stop the fighting, and Israel has responded by killing the Palestinians who made peace offers and escalating the fighting. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11 [nytimes.com]... [nytimes.com] Israel's Shortsighted Assassination By Gershon Baskin. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ [wikipedia.org]... [wikipedia.org]

                  So has Israel, what is your point? Ever peace negotiation has ended with the Palestinians storming off with a refusal to acknowledge Israel's sovereignty. You can't negotiate with people who refuse to acknowledge your rights.

                  Look, j

        • Re: Dozens! (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          So Shane here responds to someone's pro-Palestinians comment and gets marked off topic. Yet their comment was a reasonable response. But twice now two pro-Palestinians comments are marked insightful. So it "appears" that it's ok if you on the side of Palestinians but not the Israelis? I find that rather interesting to be honest. Hamas has clearly stated that they refuse to accept Israel right to exist and some here are ok with that?

          If my memory serves me correctly wasn't it the Palestinians that wal

          • Yeah, I'm not sure where some people get off with saying the Jews control world media / public opinion. Seems pretty clear to me that, despite a reasonably powerful Washington lobby, they don't have anything on the mind controlling Palestinian overlords.

          • But even though they won those wars they are told they have to give back whatever land they won as a result.

            Remember the Alamo, we should give back Texas...

  • What was the overall purpose of this? Just to waste the time of the soldiers? I'm sure if they are in a combat situation, they ignore facebook for a while.

    • Re:To what end? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 14, 2017 @01:05PM (#53667657)

      The hacked phones gave up their GPS and call history data. This data could be used to plan attacks or kidnapping.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The hacked phones gave up their GPS and call history data. This data could be used to plan attacks or kidnapping.

        AKA "acts of war".

        You do realize that the latest UN resolution deems the Western Wall in Jerusalem as "illegally occupied territory"?

        By giving the Palestinians everything they openly asked for (it's not hard to find evidence that their goal is STILL the utter eradication of Israel and the genocide of its inhabitants...), the stage for war is set?

        Do you really trust Obama's judgement here? Syria? ISIS? Egypt? Libya? Any of those Obama/Middle East cock-ups ring a bell?

        Obama just set the stage for war in

      • Similar apps are alleged to have allowed russians to target artillery in Ukraine.

    • Re:To what end? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by joe_frisch ( 1366229 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @01:16PM (#53667717)

      The specific suggestions in the previous email are valid.

      There are also possibilities of blackmail if they learn something about the soldiers. Then there is just the tactical value of having more information about the enemy - having the cells suddenly turn off might be in indication of an impending operation.

      • Re:To what end? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by TWX ( 665546 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @02:20PM (#53667991)
        Yep. There are lots of ways of using data from the phones. Establish patterns of movement, and then be able to spot when movement patterns change. Spot when phones are turned of en-masse. Identify family members in order to kidnap or otherwise coerce the military person into changing behavior for one's benefit. Possibly even get lucky, if the military member uses the phone to access sensitive servers through some kind of VPN, steal their credentials.
  • Soldiers often phone their mothers to complain about their commanders Who then have to endure the wrath of jewish mothers!!!
  • I wonder if one of the nations that created stuxnet will play up its vulnerability for the millionth time after this.

    • Why attack somewhere named for it's strippers?

  • is it registered?

  • The perils of success (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Citizen of Earth ( 569446 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @01:29PM (#53667765)
    Hamas only has power because Israel continues to tolerate it. If Hamas were to become an actual threat, Israel would tell Hamas' protectors (UN, EU) to go fuck themselves and destroy it.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by bug1 ( 96678 )

      Hamas only has power because Israel continues to tolerate it.

      Israel can choose to be fascist dictators, or it can choose to be civilised.

      Sadly, they have already made there choice obvious.

      • Whenever I see someone use the term Fascism, it comes with no real assessment of Fascism's shortcomings but only seems to be used because it is scary, because Hitler.
      • If you call your government "fascist" and don't get arrested -- then your government isn't fascist. Try cursing out Hamas' leadership from inside Gaza.

        • If you call your government "fascist" and don't get arrested -- then your government isn't fascist. Try cursing out Hamas' leadership from inside Gaza.

          Now that is a point that should get modded up. But I'm out of mod points...

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You mean, kinda like, wait for it, ..., a final solution?

      Ba dum tss.

  • Super Awesome Improvement!!! (Score:3)

    by gavron ( 1300111 ) on Saturday January 14, 2017 @01:43PM (#53667851)

    I'd rather the Hamas terrorists sit around hacking Israeli army enlisted men's smartphones than strap explosives to themselves and go kill innocent civilians in populated cities.

    Exploding bus = brutally murdered people and body parts everywhere while the terrorists and their sympathizers dance in the streets and Iran pays them.
    Hacked smartphone = nobody dead.

    This applies to all terrorists, be they Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, French-muslims, etc.

    Please, terrorists, do go on and continue your oh-so-super hacking.

    Swords to plowshares indeed.

    E

  • So, I assume they don't actually talk on the phone.. but the idea of two committed men from different religion talking dirty to each other because one of them thinks the other is an attractive member of the opposite sex to be hilarious. But it shows the power that this scam has on young men. This would work anywhere, in any country...
  • This "operation" was supposedly aimed at low-ranking Israeli soldiers. Can someone explain to me how Hamas got their phone numbers?

  • I wonder if these were conscripts rather than hired personnel.

    • Everyone in Israel has national service. If you aren't born there, but emigrate, you know what you're in for. If you are born there? Well, perhaps 2 years of your life is better than having the nation overrun.

  • They weren't fake, they were fraudulent, misleading, falsely advertising, malware....

    But they worked, therefore they weren't fake applications..

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