Cyber terrorists associated with Hamas have been involved with trying to lure IDF soldiers into downloading a Hamas-generated mobile phone app that would give the terror group access to soldiers’ personal information, allow them to retrieve sensitive security information, listen in remotely on IDF bases, and remotely install malicious applications that could turn mobile phones into cyber weapons.
In a statement Tuesday, the IDF Spokesman’s Unit had launched Operation Broken Heart to combat the threat.
Earlier this year, in January 2018, a report surfaced about a suspicious figure on Facebook named Lina Kramer, who had a conversation with a soldier on Facebook and later on Whatsapp, listing an Israeli phone number. But instead of trying to entice the soldier to download a virus through an illegitimate source, the individual asked the soldier to download an app called “GlanceLove.”
“Not long after the first attacker approached us, we’d already begun receiving dozens of reports from soldiers about suspicious figures and apps on social networks, said Colonel A., the Head of the Information Security Department. “Upon investigating the reports, we uncovered hostile infrastructure that Hamas tried to use to keep in contact with IDF soldiers and tempt them to download apps that were harmful, and use the soldiers to extract classified information.”
“I got a message on Facebook that looked innocent at first, from someone named Lina Kramer,” added L., an infantry soldier. “We started talking on Facebook, then we moved to Whatsapp, and then she asked me to download an app called GlanceLove. When I looked at her profile, I saw that it had content, and that she had an Israeli phone number.”