Pro-Palestinian hackers steal information on hundreds of thousands of Israeli students
Pro-Palestinian hackers have stolen the personal information of hundreds of thousands of Israeli students and have started leaking it online, including names, phone numbers, email addresses, and personal addresses.
The cyberattack was announced by a group called DragonForce Malaysia in an article posted on its website. In a message posted to a forum on the site, the group called on hackers, human rights organizations and activists to campaign against Israel, which it repeatedly called “Israel.”
Student details were first shared on Malaysian groups using the Telegram app.
The pirates have linked the leak to Israel’s last 11 days of fighting with terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip.
The Malaysian hackers behind the data breach apparently retrieved information from the AcadeMe website, one of the country’s largest recruiting networks for students and graduates looking for work. AcadeMe works with leading higher education institutes including Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Tel Aviv University, Open University, Bar-Ilan University, Technion and University of Haifa, as well as many colleges.
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Cyber ​​security expert May Brooks-Kempler, who runs the Think Cyber ​​Safe group on Facebook, is investigating the extent of the hacking. Details of some 280,000 students from 2014 to the present have been disclosed along with some 100,000 email addresses, Brooks-Kempler found.
She warned that the details could be used in cyber attacks targeting those who have signed up for AcadeMe and advised users to change their passwords and be alert to any suspicious emails, texts or phone calls they might. to receive.
In December of last year, a hacking group called Black Shadow broke into insurance company Shirbit by stealing client details and demanding a ransom or they would post the data on the internet. The company refused to pay, and the hackers later said they sold the information on the dark web.