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Sunday, February 17, 2013

Anonymous activists hack into 600,000 Israeli email accounts


Activists associated with the group "Anonymous" claimed on Friday to have hacked some 600,000 email accounts from the Israeli server Walla!, stealing user details and information.

A report in Australia's SC Magazine says hackers published email addresses and passwords in 93 different posts on Pastebin.com, a website used by hackers to communicate.

Walla! confirmed that the list was posted online, but downplayed the incident. "The information published is useless, since the allegedly exposed passwords are encrypted and therefore cannot be used. However, we are working on 'hermetically' sealing off user details in Walla! accounts," they said.

Alan Puzic, chief technology officer at PwnedList, which allows consumers to check if their online account had been compromised, told SC Magazine that the attack appears to be a part of the Anonymous #OpIsrael campaign that targets Israeli websites.

The #OpIsrael campaign was announced last December, during the latest round of fighting between Israel and Gaza's Hamas, codenamed 'Pillar of Defense' by the Israel Defense Forces.

The campaign targeted Israeli websites, such as those of the IDF spokesperson's unit, the Prime Minister's office, and other official websites. Apart from taking down the sites in denial-of-service attacks, hackers vandalized websites, erased databases, and distributed information from governmental, commercial, and private Israeli sites.

Various pro-Palestinian hackers joined the attacks on Israeli websites, such as ZHC and the hacker group 'Kings of Saudi Arabia.'    

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