An Israeli official says the state considers a recent mass credit card hack to be a serious “breach of sovereignty” comparable to a terrorist attack.
The hack and extract op – which compromised approximately 25,000 credit card numbers – was allegedly conducted by a Saudi-based individual known as OxOmar.
However, recent Israeli media reports indicate the person responsible for the security breach may very well be a 19-year-old citizen of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) studying and working in Mexico.
”Israel has active capabilities for striking at those who are trying to harm it,” Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said on Saturday.
“And no agency or hacker will be immune from retaliatory action.”
It should be noted that the Israeli cabinet recently approved the creation of a National Cyber Directorate to bolster the digital perimeter protecting the borders of the Jewish state.
The nascent Directorate will likely be led (at least initially) by elements within the IDF’s secretive Unit 8200 – which may have coded the Stuxnet computer worm responsible for infecting Iranian nuclear facilities.
“Terrorist groups understand there is a huge potential for causing harm to countries or entities, damage that could change the [strategic] balance,” an IDF officer explained.
“Our job is to prevent this from happening. In contrast to other battle fronts, time and space have no meaning in the cyber realm.”
