Israel Today reported that Israeli Defense Ministry systems had been hacked and raised fears of leaking “sensitive information.”
The newspaper reported that “hackers announced that they had hacked into the computers of the Ministry of Defense and put their hands on “sensitive information.”
It said they posted the information in groups on the Telegram platform and posted a video that they claimed showed how they hacked Defense Ministry systems and accessed the information.
The hackers posted documents presumed to be Defense Department contracts and offered the full information for sale in various forums for 50 bitcoins (about $3.3 million), according to the newspaper.
“Elsewhere (which it did not specify), the hackers claimed to have stolen a lot of information and demanded that Israel release 500 Palestinian prisoners.”
Israel holds at least 9,400 Palestinians, including children and women, in its prisons, and their conditions have worsened since it began a devastating war on the Gaza Strip six months ago.
The newspaper explained that “penetrating the systems of the Ministry of Defense is much more dangerous than penetrating any other systems, governmental or civilian, as the security system is a strategic target for Iranian hackers and others.”
While Israel’s Defense Ministry declined to comment, security sources confirmed to the newspaper that the ministry’s systems had been compromised, without specifying whether the stolen information was sensitive.
On April 5, hackers hacked into the website of the Israeli Ministry of Justice and obtained a huge amount of data, including information about ministry employees and official documents, according to Israeli estimates.
Despite the Justice Ministry’s denial of the attack, informed sources told Israel Today that there are currently about 100 gigabytes of sensitive information on the Internet and appears to have come from the Justice Ministry.
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