In the past four years, 16 websites appeared in Iran, Lebanon, and Syria in an attempt to lure those interested in spy/consulting work for Israel. They specifically targeted those who had sensitive security jobs in the Hezbollah group, the Assad regime, and in Iran. These sites were using the same website structures such as logos, images, and phrasing as Israeli websites [1].
History of Cyberwars between Iran and Israel
In recent history, due to an increasing number of sanctions and the political tension between Iran and Israel, a cyber war has been brewing in the region. These cyber attacks on both fronts aim to disrupt government and/or military facilities. For example, in April 2020, an Israeli water pumping station was hacked and tampered with in an attempt to poison water supplies with higher chlorine levels. Recently, the number and intensity of these attacks has been increasing with the hacking of fuel supply systems, railway controls, and airlines. Not only have these attacks been impacting governmental systems of both countries, but the lives of ordinary citizens have turned chaotic as well. More recently, an Israeli LGBTQ dating app was hacked, and the intimate data, including users’ HIV status, of a million users were leaked by what is assumed to be Iranian actors [2].
An example of these ‘honey-trap’ sites
“VIP Human Solutions” was one of these 16 fake sites. It made an effort to mimic an Israeli consulting agency by incorporating a unique pitch, logos, and it even had its own YouTube and Facebook pages to advertise their services. The site itself featured an Israeli flag as well as a phone number to contact which had Israeli country code. They advertised themselves as a “VIP center for recruitment of the most distinguished in the military and security services of Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon” and promised high salaries and a quick hiring process [3].
Evidence
While there is no concrete evidence of these sites belonging to a group or what their purpose is, cybersecurity specialists have suspected that they are part of a counterintelligence effort launched by Iran or their operatives. These sites have been so broad that many Iranians have expressed their confusion and frustration over social media networks. Experts believe that Israel’s intelligence services would not advertise espionage work in such an indiscreet and non-professional manner. Moreover, after some research, it has been identified that many of these 16 sites are controlled under the same Google Analytics account and when reaching out to them on their Telegram account, no response has been received [3].
Conclusion
These series of websites are a prime example of phishing websites to avoid. It is crucial for ordinary citizens to be trained on phishing tactics and to learn the ability to identify them. On many occasions, phishing websites try to scam people out of their money, but in this case, it could have cost former spies or enemies of a state their lives.
Yes, indeed the tension between Iran and Israel has been increasing. Both countries want to have a go at each other in any way possible. Since we live in a tech savvy world the cyberwar you described above seems to be the new kind of war. Rather than deploying troops or launching missile attacks, countries seem to now rely on cyberattacks. I must admit the kind of ads you mentioned which were used in order to recruit spies, seem very tempting because of the amount of money they are offering. But I have learnt that some things are too good to be true. Therefore, one must be aware of the consequences before blindly signing up for something. Interesting post!
Hey great job on the article, I think you highlighted some great information on global espionage that is taking place. I also wrote about cyberwarfare; however, I did not look into Israel. From your information, it looks as if Israel is heavily involved in espionage such as the software Pegasus that has been causing quite a controversy. I really learned alot from your post and also related alot of information back to my own post regarding how China has been influencing Western countries through subtle means. Overall good job on the post
I think it’s a great article. I have certainly came across the tensions between Iran and Israel and how they have been using internet to tackle with the situation.
It is really easy to influence people online and we should definitely avoid the phishing websites.
Hi, very interesting article here. This issue really brings up the whole potential of cyber wars and how although physical conflicts seemed to have reduced in the past century, advancement in technology lets groups of people take advantage and attack others in unexpected ways. Even in domestic cases, individuals should be aware of all the websites they go on, making sure it is reliable!
Its surprising to me that scams like this still work. This really seems like a case of “to good to be true”; a website offers you a highly specialized job with a high salary, claiming a quick hiring process for work that is ultimately extremely sensitive. That being said, it speaks volumes about current cybersecurity education across the general public. It may be sometimes easy to forget that the digital age is relatively new, and many had to adapt to cyber-scams during a midlife paradigm shift. It’s clear that more needs to be done to educate the public about online safety, as we have with other social issues in the past, especially because the internet represents an opportunity for scammers to victimize people they have never met.
I believe this a great post. I read somewhere that the goal of cyberwar is to weaken and disrupt another nation. Cyberwar programs, target a wide range of objectives that harm national interests to achieve their goals.
It is interesting to see a scam / phishing tactic aimed towards those who are employed in the security and privacy world. The people applying for these positions should be supposed experts in their fields and yet they fall for such a simple scam. I would think that only truly desperate individuals would go for these “too good to be true” deals but I guess for some people ignorance is bliss. The only way to fight against these attcks would be to increase education on phishing scams but as more and more scams get developed it may become difficult to protect against them all. Also as reliance on computer systems increases cyberwarfare such as the these scams will probably become more frequent which makes me wonder whether future generations will become desensitized to them.
Interesting topic. This reminds me of the conversation we had in class where at a security conference there was a leak in the email list. It goes to show that even experts are susceptible at mistakes and creating vulnerabilities. If you play Minecraft and use the CurseForge launcher you will notice that there is an application that runs on start “Overwolf” that is tied to a data information company in Israel.
I find it interesting that such simple tricks like these are as effective as they are. It goes to show that even professionals in this field can still have lapses in judgement just like the rest of us, and unfortunately, that can be enough for a malicious 3rd party to steal or destroy whatever information they desire from a network or system
Great post! It’s interesting how serious these cyberattacks can get. Specifically the example given of poisoning a water supply with chlorine, that could very easily have led to many lives lost, and possibly declarations of war, or that the act itself was a terrorist act. When one thinks of cyberattacks it’s usually data being stolen, or information being used to blackmail someone else, but its important to remember the real and physical harms that a malicious actor can do inside certain systems.