The latest strike in the little cyber war between Israel and the Saudi hacker group xp-group, led by 0xOmar, has taken the form of an Israeli hack of Saudi credit cards, according to Ynet.
An Israel hackers told Ynet, “If the leaks continue, we will cause severe damage to the privacy of Saudi citizens.”
“Pompous boasting”
The Israeli government called the hack and subsequent release of credit card numbers and identities terrorism and said “no agency or hacker will be immune from retaliatory action.”
The Israeli hackers claim to have “thousands of lists that include the personal details of citizens in the Arab state as well as the credit card details of those citizens. At the moment, we’re holding on to the information and waiting for the right moment to publish it.”
One Saudi citizen contacted by the publication confirmed the information they had on him was correct but said no one had told him his credit card information had been compromised.
“We could not stay silent after the pompous boasting of the Saudi hacker,” an Israeli hacker told Ynet, adding that “a few Israeli hackers came together and decided on various responses for each cyber activity that would be carried out against Israel, including responses beyond the cyber world.”
Does that include physical retaliation? Such a threat does not seem in keeping with a hacker group.
He explained that “if a terror attack were to take place, we will make every effort to publish the terrorist’s personal details and those of his family… Sadly, the State of Israel does not support an offensive policy so we are forced to maintain a great deal of secrecy. If we are caught we’re facing a harsh punishment.”
0xOmer
Haartez has identified one of the Israeli hackers as Omer Cohen, nicknamed 0xOmer, after the alleged Saudi hacker, 0xOmar.
He has released “over 200 Saudi credit card numbers and emails were exposed as well as the details of the citizens of other countries.” He told Haartez in an email that he kept some information out of circulation so no one could actually use the card numbers. He further claims to have “the personal information of over 50,000 Arab citizens, including the credit card numbers originating from several Gulf states as well as Iran.”
He told the newspaper he is a 17-year-old Israeli immigrant from the Ukraine. But who knows? Perhaps he’s a Canadian going to school in Belgium.
Although many Israelis have maintained the Saudi hacker, whom some believe is actually an Emirati attending university in Mexico, is not highly skilled, but it’s hard to tell if that is correct or if it is part of an international geek pissing contest.
Riyadh photo by Dennis Harper, radar photo by Joe Lewis, Mall of Arabia photo by Wajahat Mahmood
