Following the security breach in a Likud app which exposed the personal information of over 6 million Israelis to hackers, Iran and other foreign intelligence agencies may have already accessed the personal information of top Israeli intelligence figures, The Jerusalem Post reported on Tuesday.
Former Shin Bet cyber expert Harel Menashri told The Jerusalem Post that “many parties, like foreign intelligence agencies, may have access to top officials of the Likud Party, to the head of the Shin Bet, the head of the Mossad and others. There are also many private companies who will also want the information.”
The personal information of 6,453,254 Israelis was leaked due to a security breach of the Elector application which the Likud uses on Election Day and on which the party uploaded the entire national voter registry.
All Israeli political parties have access to the personal information of Israel’s voters prior to the elections, including names, phone numbers, addresses and identification numbers. The parties are responsible to protect the voters’ privacy and are not permitted to copy, erase or transfer the registry.
Senior Verizon programmer Ron Bar Zik told Calcalist, an Israeli financial daily: “Every intelligence organization, foreign state or even business can access data on every person in Israel. I’ve seen many breaches in my life but I’ve never seen such a ridiculous breach like this which caused this much damage.”
Menashri told the Post that the breach was “an embarrassment in terms of how bad it is. The real personal information of every citizen above the age of 18” was exposed.
Israel’s Privacy Protection Authority stated on Monday night that it opened an investigation against multiple parties responsible for the leak, including Likud officials and third parties contracted by the party who were responsible to protect the data.
The Authority added that anyone found to have violated privacy laws could face civil or criminal penalties.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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One Response
Hard to believe, but possible in this day and age. Israeli hackers have become a hilul HaShem worldwide with their antics on behalf of the worst people. Now, the awful Iranians may have hacked vital info?
oy vey.