Security News > 2020 > February > Hamas Ensnares Israeli Soldiers with Pretty ‘Ladies’

Hamas has been caught taking a classic "Catfish" approach, to tempt Israeli soldiers into installing spyware on their phones.

The IDF told the Times of Israel that the idea was to catch male targets' attention, strike up a rapport and eventually lure the soldiers into installing a special app on their phones.

The app would show up as an icon; but, if a soldier clicked on it, he would get an error message saying that the app wasn't compatible with the device.

"The apps, which were not available in official app stores, would appear to fail with an error message after installation - but in reality install malware on behalf of Hamas to take remote control of an infected smartphone," security researcher Graham Cluley said in an analysis this week.

"She sends him a link to an app store called 'apkpk.' He downloads the app she requested. The app isn't working, not for the soldier, at least. He tries to tell the pretty girl on the other end, but she won't respond."

News URL

https://threatpost.com/hamas-israeli-soldiers-pretty-ladies/153020/