Hackers Threatened to Expose Israeli Gay Dating App Users
Contributed by: kellyseal on Wednesday, December 15 2021 @ 12:14 pm
Last modified on Wednesday, December 15 2021 @ 12:23 pm
A group of hackers called Black Shadow threatened to expose the personal information of more than a million users of Israel’s leading gay dating app unless they were paid a million U.S. dollars within a 48-hour period.
The dating site Atraf became a target after Black Shadow hacked an Israeli internet service provider CyberServe, according to Agence-France Press[*1] (AFP). The hackers dropped tens of thousands of personal data records online as proof of making good on the threat, which were stolen from various websites that included public transportation firms, museums, and a travel company in addition to Atraf. About 1,000 user profiles were exposed from Atraf, according to the report, with the hackers saying more exposures were to come if they did not get paid.
These exposed records included HIV status, sexual orientation, and even some passwords. According to AFP, cyber security officials link the hackers to Iran.
A similar attack last year targeted Israeli insurance firm Shirbit, which prompted security investigators consider the links to Iran, according to AFP. "We know that attack on Shirbit was Iranian, and therefore we can say, if it's the same attacker and that attack was Iranian, this attack is Iranian," Cyber intelligence researcher Ohad Zaidenberg told France 24.
Although a ransom was put on this attack, Keren Elazari, cybersecurity expert and researcher at Tel Aviv University agreed that evidence pointed to Iran and said: "A big part of the hacks we've seen is not about ransom," she said. "It's about embarrassing Israeli companies, embarrassing Israeli citizens." She also noted that the pandemic has created vulnerabilities in data leaks, as people work from home on unsecured networks, and felt that CyberServe didn’t adequately protect itself from the attack.
Much of the blame from was directed at CyberServe. The Israel National Cyber Directorate, a government-funded organization overseeing online security issues and threats said it had warned CyberServe several times that it was vulnerable to this type of attack. The organization also advised Israelis whose personal data was compromised or could be compromised to change their passwords and enable two-factor authentication, as many cyber security experts are advocating with the growing threat of hackers stealing valuable personal data and holding it for ransom.
The Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel was flooded with calls from worried Atraf users, prompting the company to extend its emergency hotline hours. The organization’s CEO Ran Shalhavi told Agence-France Press about the dating app users: "They are exposed, and if they are in the closet, they are exposed to situations they never knew before.”