The Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday it has evidence the Hamas terrorist group has been trying to hack mobile phones used by Israeli soldiers through a malicious World Cup score-tracking app and two bogus dating apps.
Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and has fought several wars with Israel, did not comment on the allegations.
The three Android apps, which have since been removed from the Google Play Store, were designed to infect troops' phones with data-stealing malware and turn on cameras and microphones for live spying, two military security officers said.
A Google Israel spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. At a briefing for foreign reporters, IDF officers declined to say how Israel had determined Hamas was responsible.
The IDF said that after the two dating apps, Winkchat and GlanceLove, were pulled from Google Play, Hamas uploaded a third app, Golden Cup, set up last month as the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament kicked off in Russia.
The app allowed users to watch World Cup games and see the game schedule. "It was actually a very good one, giving you the game results," one officer said.
According to available details, Hamas operatives, using false identities, contacted soldiers on Facebook and the WhatsApp messaging application and encouraged them to download the apps to their private smartphones. The operatives' social media accounts had Israeli names, and a majority had been active since August 2017.
Fewer than 100 soldiers downloaded the spyware, and were located either by self-reporting or after military security analysts tracked them down, the officers said.
"We know of no damage that was done," one of the officers said.
Following the incident, the IDF instructed soldiers who had opened a suspicious link or downloaded a suspicious app to report to their commanders and information security officials.
The military reported a similar alleged Hamas plot in January 2017, saying cellphones belonging to dozens of soldiers were hacked by terrorists pretending to be attractive young women. At the time, the IDF said no sensitive information had been compromised in the scheme.
