A series of Hamas-orchestrated cyber attacks targeting Palestinian Authority officials was uncovered in recent months by Cybereason, the Israeli security company reported on Thursday.
The purpose of the attacks, the company said, was to track cell phones belonging to PA officials, access phone cameras and microphones without the owner's knowledge and steal information.
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The hackers used US President Donald Trump's "deal of the century" and the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani to entice the PA officials to click on malicious links and thus infiltrate their cell phones.
Boston-based Cybereason revealed several cyber-warfare operations targeting organizations and individuals in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in a report from its Nocturnus Research Group titled "New Cyber Espionage Campaigns Targeting Palestinians."
Cybereason said it monitored the attacks over a period of months, discovering they were perpetrated in a similar way to previous attacks the Hamas cyber unit committed against Israeli strategic assets. The unit, according to Cybereason, is a politically-motivated cell that has acted against various targets across the Middle East since 2012.
Cybereason was founded by Lior Div (CEO), Yossi Naar (CVO) and Yonatan Shitrit Amit (CTO) in 2012. The company develops systems that gather information from all servers and stations in an organization, analyzing their behavior in real-time.
