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Israel Vows Response To Hacking
[January 09, 2012]

Israel Vows Response To Hacking


Jan 09, 2012 (Radio Free Europe Documents and Publications/ContentWorks via COMTEX) -- January 8, 2012 Israel has vowed to respond to the publication of thousands of Israelis' credit-card details by a computer hacker.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said such cyberattacks were a "breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation," and warned that Israel has the capability to strike back.

"Israel has an enormous ability to protect itself and I reckon that we will do so and find all of the breaches," Ayalon said on January 7.

"Some sort of message must be relayed -- that whoever harms Israel, or is planning to harm Israel, or trying to harm Israel, including in cyberspace, will be harmed," he added. "That is to say, they will not be immune from Israeli retaliatory action." His remarks came days after a hacker, who has indentified himself as being based in Saudi Arabia, said he had leaked on to the Internet private credit-card information on thousands of Israelis.

The Reuters news agency, quoting credit-card companies, reported that the details of around 25,000 card numbers, some of them expired, had been exposed.

Unconfirmed Israeli news reports have said the hacker may be a 19-year-old who has been living in Mexico.


Copyright (c) 2011. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org

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