Israeli officials are investigating the recent cyber-attack that resulted in the theft of thousands of credit card numbers. At least one Israeli government official has promised to retaliate against the perpetrators of that attack that he described as "comparable to a terrorist operation."
Israeli
officials are investigating a recent cyber-attack that resulted in the theft
and exposure of thousands of credit card numbers belonging to Israeli citizens.
The attack was
a "breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation, and must be
treated as such," deputy foreign minister Danny Ayalon told BBC.
An individual
using the name 0xOmar leaked details of thousands of credit card numbers
online, according to a Jan. 2 statement on PasteBay. 0xOmar claimed to be
affiliated with Group-xp, a known hacking group based in Saudi Arabia. Israel's
data protection agency is investigating the incident and is considering asking
Interpol for assistance, Yoram Hacohen, head of Israel's data protection agency,
told the Associated Press Jan. 6.
The stolen
information came from multiple Israeli sites and supposedly contained names,
addresses, Israeli ID numbers, phone numbers and credit card information,
including expiration dates and three-digit security codes. Furthermore, 0xOmar
claimed to have collected information on almost 1 million people and said he would
publish it all.
"Israel
has active capabilities for striking at those who are trying to harm it, and no
agency or hacker will be immune from retaliatory action," Ayalon told BBC.
National
governments have been considering ways to retaliate against those who commit cyber-attacks.
Early last week, reports emerged that the Japanese government had contracted
with Fujitsu to develop what was described as a "good virus" that was
capable of seeking out computers behind a cyber-attack and disabling them from
conducting further attacks.
In November,
the United States Department of Defense explicitly
stated that it has the right to retaliate with military force and launch a
physical attack in the event of a cyber-attack against defense systems. The
threat of military action would deter people who think they can carry out
"significant cyber-attacks directed against the U.S. economy, government
or military," the Pentagon wrote in a 12-page report to Congress.
The House and
Senate agreed, giving the U.S. military the power to conduct "offensive" strikes
online, including clandestine attacks, according to a provision in the
military's 2012 funding bill. Both houses have already passed their versions of
the funding bill and are expected to approve the "conference" bill,
which reconciles the two versions into a single bill.
"Congress
affirms that the Department of Defense has the capability, and upon direction
by the president may conduct offensive operations in cyber-space to defend our
nation, allies and interests," according to the reconciled bill.
The United Kingdom also discussed improving its
military's defense capabilities without actually committing to use military
force in its Cyber-Security Strategy released in November.
While 0xOmar
claimed to have disclosed information belonging to about 400,000 Israelis, the Bank of Israel's banking supervision department
said Jan. 3 that only 15,000 active accounts had been exposed. Another 11,000
credit card numbers were dumped online Jan. 5, but credit card companies
claimed only about 6,000 of those accounts were active.
"The
credit card companies reported that they have identified the cards of the
customers whose details were exposed on the Internet, and the cards have been
blocked for use in Internet purchases and telephone purchases," according
to the Bank of Israel statement.
There are reports
that 0xOmar is a 19-year-old person who is currently in Mexico.
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