Categories: Hacking

Hamas hacked the programming at Israeli TV Channel 10

Hackers pro Hamas claim to have hacked programming on Israeli TV Channel 10 and inserted an unscheduled transmission calling for an end to Israeli airstrikes.

The effects of the conflict between Israel and Palestin are evident also in the cyberspace, group of hacktivists, including Anonymous, are targeting Israeli Government websites to protest against recent strikes that killed many innocent civilians.

Recently the Facebook page of Domino’s Pizza in Israel was defaced by hackers who was threatening the Israeli Government.

“Today will strike deep in Israel, Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, Ashkelon, Ashdod more than 2000 rockets. We’ll start at 7. Counting back towards the end of Israel … Be warned!”

While TV broadcasters all over the world are spreading the images of cruel bombardments, a singular event has attracted the security community. Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Palestinian political organization Hamas, claimed responsibility for a cyber attack on the satellite Israeli TV Channel 10. The hackers were able to interrupt the scheduled programming and to transmit an unscheduled transmission calling for an end to Israeli airstrikes in Gaza, the hackers replaced media files with their own footage.

The hackers took over the satellite feed of Channel 10 for a few minutes, spreading images of injured Palestinian and Hamas militants accompanied by messages in Hebrew like this one:

“Your government chose to begin this campaign. If your government won’t agree to our terms then prepare yourselves for a drawn-out stay in bomb shelters.” states the Ynetnews agency.

Below the video that was viewed by Israeli TV viewers:

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Another propaganda message spread during the transmission was:

“If you don’t want your sons to be prisoners or to be killed then call them quickly to go back home.”

In time I’m writing, there are no details on the attack conducted by Hamas sympathizers, it is likely that hackers succeeded to compromise the servers at Channel 10, exploiting a wrong configuration of defense systems or targeting personnel at the TV station with a spear phishing attack.

The hackers are trying to sensitize the public opinion on the dramatic events that are happening in Gaza and that according to Hamas are only killing innocent people.

I will not discuss political motivations between the two opponents, but I would not want to see more innocent people who are crying their victims, I would not read most of the children who are killed by bombs.
Peace for everybody all!

Pierluigi Paganini

Security Affairs – (Hamas, hacking)

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.