Hackers calling themselves the ‘Iranian cyber army’ take over Israel journalists’ Telegram channel

Iranian hackers have taken over the Telegram channel of Israeli journalists Yaron Avraham from Channel 12 News and Yanir Cozin of Army Radio.

Channel 12 reports that the two haven’t had control of the social channel for almost 24 hours after the hackers changed its profile picture to a photo of slain Iranian al-Quds Force commander General Qassem Soleimani.

Since then, posts to the channel, which has over 38,000 followers, have included threats of rocket fire and photos of Adolf Hitler and Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“I’ll tell you the truth, it was most unpleasant. Friday night, the kids were already sleeping, and suddenly our photo was changed to Qassem Soleimani,” Avraham tells Channel 12.

“A few minutes later they identified themselves as the ‘Iranian cyber army’ and said that their attack on the channel proves Israel’s weakness,” he says, adding that efforts are underway to recover the account.

האקרים איראניים השתלטו על ערוץ הטלגרם שלי ושל יניר קוזין. רגעים לא נעימים בכלל עם איומים ברמה לאומית. מבקש את עזרתו של כל מי שיכול לעזור pic.twitter.com/L7WGPaL6jL

— Yaron Avraham ירון אברהם (@yaronavraham) November 1, 2024