Carding 4 Carders
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What makes hackers want to help Hamas?
Researchers have found possible signs of cooperation between the Palestinian military organization Hamas and one of the longest-lived groups of hackers who speak Arabic. According to a report published by the research company Recorded Future, Hamas likely turned to operators outside of Gaza and "third parties" to maintain the operation of a news site linked to its military wing, Al-Qassam, during the war with Israel.
A few days after the first major Hamas attack on Israel, the Telegram channel used by Hamas members and supporters announced the launch of an app linked to Al-Qassam. The app was released to spread the message of Hamas.
In Gaza, it is difficult to maintain a website or app — Israeli airstrikes have damaged the Internet infrastructure and caused power outages. The region is also constantly under attack by politically motivated hackers who seek to disrupt its vital services and websites.
Hamas is supposed to solve this problem by sharing its infrastructure with those who can help keep it running. After a major attack on Israel, the operators of the Al-Qassam site moved it between different infrastructure providers.
Analyzing this infrastructure, the researchers found suspicious redirects to the Al-Qassam site and identical Google Analytics code associated with the site's domain and about 90 other domains.
The first group of domains used similar registration methods as the TAG-63 hacker group, also known as AridViper and APT-C-23. It is a state-backed cyber espionage group known for targeting Arabic-speaking individuals in the Middle East. The group is considered to be acting on behalf of Gamas.
The second group of domains is presumably related to Iran. On one of the pages linked to Iran, there was an attempt to impersonate the World Organization against Torture (OMCT). The researchers could not confirm whether the site was used by hackers for phishing or social engineering.
Iran maintains close ties to Hamas, and Iran's Quds Force, a unit specializing in non-standard warfare and military intelligence, is the only confirmed Iranian entity known for its cyber support of Hamas and other Palestinian threat groups.
While there isn't much evidence of collaboration between the two sides, this report provides insight into how these groups can help each other, according to the researchers.
Researchers have found possible signs of cooperation between the Palestinian military organization Hamas and one of the longest-lived groups of hackers who speak Arabic. According to a report published by the research company Recorded Future, Hamas likely turned to operators outside of Gaza and "third parties" to maintain the operation of a news site linked to its military wing, Al-Qassam, during the war with Israel.
A few days after the first major Hamas attack on Israel, the Telegram channel used by Hamas members and supporters announced the launch of an app linked to Al-Qassam. The app was released to spread the message of Hamas.
In Gaza, it is difficult to maintain a website or app — Israeli airstrikes have damaged the Internet infrastructure and caused power outages. The region is also constantly under attack by politically motivated hackers who seek to disrupt its vital services and websites.
Hamas is supposed to solve this problem by sharing its infrastructure with those who can help keep it running. After a major attack on Israel, the operators of the Al-Qassam site moved it between different infrastructure providers.
Analyzing this infrastructure, the researchers found suspicious redirects to the Al-Qassam site and identical Google Analytics code associated with the site's domain and about 90 other domains.
The first group of domains used similar registration methods as the TAG-63 hacker group, also known as AridViper and APT-C-23. It is a state-backed cyber espionage group known for targeting Arabic-speaking individuals in the Middle East. The group is considered to be acting on behalf of Gamas.
The second group of domains is presumably related to Iran. On one of the pages linked to Iran, there was an attempt to impersonate the World Organization against Torture (OMCT). The researchers could not confirm whether the site was used by hackers for phishing or social engineering.
Iran maintains close ties to Hamas, and Iran's Quds Force, a unit specializing in non-standard warfare and military intelligence, is the only confirmed Iranian entity known for its cyber support of Hamas and other Palestinian threat groups.
While there isn't much evidence of collaboration between the two sides, this report provides insight into how these groups can help each other, according to the researchers.
