Report: Iran hacked Israeli cameras a year ago; defense officials knew, didn’t act
Iranian group controlled dozens of CCTV cameras for lengthy period, uploaded videos of weapons factory and Jerusalem terror bombing, according to exposé set to air in full Tuesday
Michael Horovitz is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel
The security establishment was aware for a year that an Iranian hacker group had seized control of dozens of Israeli security cameras, but did nothing to stop it, as the group published several videos from across Israel, including footage of an arms facility last year and of a terror attack in Jerusalem last month, a report said Monday evening
In a preview of a full investigative report set to be aired on Tuesday, the Kan public broadcaster said officials did not take action to secure the cameras, despite their knowledge of the activities of the group, known as Moses Staff. The report did not cite sources during Monday’s snippet.
The group published footage a year ago on its Telegram channel of the surroundings of Israel’s Rafael defense contractor factory in Haifa, as well as footage from cameras throughout Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
The group also published footage last month of a terror bombing attack in Jerusalem which left two people dead, from a surveillance camera apparently used by a major Israeli security organization.
According to Kan, hackers were able to pan, tilt and zoom cameras while they controlled them for a lengthy period. It was unclear if the cameras had since been proofed against the hackers.
Security officials told Kan that the videos uploaded by Moses Staff were recorded by civilian cameras that were not connected to any security network.
חשיפה: מצלמות הגוף הביטחוני שצילמו את הפיגוע ביציאה מירושלים לפני כחודש נפרצו על ידי האקרים איראנים כבר לפני יותר משנה. גורמי ביטחון ידעו. התחקיר המלא של @orenaharoni1 – מחר ב-#חדשותהערב pic.twitter.com/fMhv3i8S72
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) December 19, 2022
Kan said the full report will explore hackers efforts to monitor senior Israeli officials and shine a light on those behind Moses Staff.
The same hacker group claimed responsibility in June for a cyberattack that caused rocket sirens to go off in some areas of Jerusalem and the southern city of Eilat.
Moses Staff in the past year said it leaked sensitive information about soldiers, which appeared to be publicly available information on LinkedIn, and aerial imagery of Israel, which was obtained through a commercial site.
In another unsubstantiated assertion, the group claimed to have caused an army observation balloon to crash in the Gaza Strip in June. The military said the balloon was not tethered correctly.
Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.
