How Hamas trapped Israeli soldiers in an online ‘honey trap’
Israel’s military recently uncovered a scam by Hamas militants posing as women on social media and get their soldiers to divulge intelligence
Hamas operatives allegedly used fake online identities and photos of young women to lure the soldiers. "Just a second, I'll send you a photo, my dear," one 'woman' wrote on Facebook, according to an Israeli officer briefing reporters on how the alleged scam worked, the Nationalpost reported.
Hamas
operatives
created
40
profiles
of
'young
women',
presenting
them
as
veteran
Israeli
military
personnel
currently
overseas,
but
soon
planning
to
return
to
Israel.
A
friend
request
would
be
sent
to
the
soldier,
along
with
the
photo
of
a
beautiful
woman,
which
could
not
be
easily
ignored.
If
the
soldiers
insisted
on
a
phone
number,
they
were
politely
told
by
the
'woman'
that
they
didn't
have
access
to
one,
and
hence,
would
ask
them
to
install
the
piece
of
malicious
software.
According to several reports, dozens of soldiers were lured into installing this app that controlled their microphones and phone cameras. This was because the 'woman' promised these soldiers that they would 'video chat' with them.
After the app was installed, the 'woman' would stop responding to the soldiers' messages, but the phone's contents would be left vulnerable to Hamas operatives, as they could now have access to photos, the GPS location of the soldiers, text messages and the phone book.
Such was the app designed, that it would not only lie undetected, it would also record the soldiers' personal conversations, take photos and install other malicious software - all without the soldier's knowledge.
To make it more convincing, the operatives used Hebrew slang so that it appeared their victims were indeed speaking to Israeli women.
The operation was blown when several soldiers of the same unit were approached by the same 'woman', leading them to report the matter to the data security team. Several operations had to be modified, or cancelled as a result of this, an officer told Bloomberg.