January 8, 2012

JERUSALEM (JTA) — An attack on Israeli credit card records is akin to a terrorist attack, Israeli leaders said after hackers published a third file of credit card details of thousands of Israelis.

The file posted on the Internet on Jan. 6 reportedly also contained a virus, according to the Israeli media. 

The new posting is believed to have been done by a second hacker, who reportedly belongs to the same Saudi-based Group XP as the original hacker. The list reportedly contains mostly the same numbers found in the previous two postings.

The original hacker, who identified himself as OxOmar, said last week in an Internet message that he has hacked some 80 Israeli websites and will release a total of 1 million credit card numbers with personal information.

The cyber attacks are “a breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation, and must be treated as such,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, according to Reuters.  “The violent infiltration of Israel’s cyberspace is an act of terror and that’s how it should be treated. Anyone who has harmed or wants to harm Israel, not excluding its cyberspace, will be harmed and not be immune from Israeli responses.”

On Sunday, police in northern Israel arrested an 18-year-old man and charged him with using some of the illegally posted credit card numbers to make major on-line purchases.
 

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