Syrian hacktivists gained control of Israel Defense Force's (IDF) Twitter account for a short time and falsely spread rumors of nuclear leaks after a rocket attack in Dimona.
On Thursday, July 3, the official Twitter account of the Israeli Army is confirmed to have been compromised by hackers. The Syrian Electronic Army has taken responsibility of the cyberattack. IDF was quick enough to realize about the hack and took prompt measures to fix the error. IDF also tweeted to confirm the hack and apologized for the false tweet.
"We apologize for the incorrect tweets Our twitter account was compromised. We will combat terror on all fronts including the cyber dimension," says the official IDF tweet.
The Twitter account hack and the false tweet is likely a reaction of Syrian hacktivists after Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, delivered an ultimatum to Hamas in Gaza to halt rocket attacks or Israel will strike back.
The Israeli army and terrorists in the Palestinian enclave are involved in a number of revengeful attacks over the last few weeks. IDF has started a massive army operation to find two Hamas members, who are believed to be hiding in the West Bank. Israel claims that the two Hamas members kidnapped and murdered three teenagers from Israel on June 12.
More than 15 rockets are said to have been fired from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, July 3, which injured one Israeli soldier.
The IDF has also increased its ground army forces around the Gaza Strip. Tensions also increased in East Jerusalem and the southern border region after a Muslim teenager was killed in a revenge attack. The Israeli cabinet has remained silent over the possible anti-Hamas operations arising due to the kidnapping and murder of the teens.
IDF officials say that they encounter cyberattacks on government websites on a regular basis. The Israeli government also develops cyber-technology to fend off cyberattacks, which has also become the country's major export product.
The Syrian Electronic Army has hacked Twitter accounts and websites of prominent news channels such as Washington Post, New York Times, CNN and more. The Syrian Electronic Army claims that these news channels faked certain aspects of the Syrian civil war in the opposition favor.
