Iran on Wednesday released the name, photo, phone number and home address of an Israeli cybersecurity expert who specializes in Iranian hacking efforts – its latest game in an ongoing cyber war.
The information was released by Fars News, an Iranian outlet operated by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The disclosure of the information, or doxing, served as a tacit threat to both the cybersecurity specialist himself and other Israelis doing similar work.
In addition to his name, phone number and home address, Fars also published his date of birth, email address, social media addresses and a photo of his home from the cybersecurity expert. Most of the information appears to have come from his social media accounts and other open sources.
The Israeli man appeared to have been targeted by the IRGC for his work in the Israel Defense Forces in the cyber-focused unit 8200 of Military Intelligence; and in the civilian world for a cybersecurity firm, Clear Sky, which uncovered a number of Iranian hacking attacks.
Israel and Iran have been embroiled in a largely silent cyber war for years, which occasionally bubbles to the surface.
Last month, Iran accused Israel of being behind a cyber attack on the country’s gas stations, putting them out of service for a week.
Days later, an Iranian-affiliated hacker group, Black Shadow, targeted an Israeli hosting company, temporarily suspended a number of websites and stole user data from Atraf, an Israeli LGBT dating site.
Black Shadow also stole a huge pool of information from Israeli insurance company Shirbit last year and then sold it on the dark web when the company refused to pay a ransom.
In 2010, the Stuxnet virus – believed to have been developed by Israel and the US – infected Iran’s nuclear program and caused a series of failures in centrifuges used to enrich uranium.
After the Stuxnet virus, Iran disconnected a large part of its infrastructure from the Internet.
