Iran Hacks Into E-Mail Accounts Of Senior Israeli Officials For Phishing
Israel says Iranian hackers broke into the e-mail accounts of senior Israeli officials and carried out targeted "phishing" attacks to retrieve information about politicians and academics.
Israeli cybersecurity company CheckPoint revealed on Tuesday that some of the targets have a high public profile, such as former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the former US ambassador to Israel, and the head of a large security research institute in Israel.
According to CheckPoint, the Iranians who hacked into the e-mail accounts of the officials, impersonated them on various platforms, corresponded on their behalf and eventually stole personal information from them.
The hackers, for instance, used a false identity of a retired Israeli Defense Force general and the former ambassador to Washington in order to approach other officials to continue their breach on the personal information of high-level officials in the defense industry, passports and other restricted documents.
The company added that the hacking campaign began in December of 2021, and continued for at least six months, ending last week.
The ploy was uncovered when Livni approached checkpoint after she became suspicious in December, when she received a mail from the former IDF general who urged her to enter her email password in a Trojan file that had invited her to attend a conference abroad.
Pakistan’s foreign minister is in Iran and has met with his Iranian counterpart as part of regular high-level exchanges between the two neighbors.
During a joint press conference on Tuesday, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said they discussed issues of mutual interest such as trade cooperation, border markets, and development of local trade. The top Pakistani diplomat arrived in Tehran for a two-day visit and is scheduled to visit Mashhad on Wednesday.
The two foreign ministers said they also talked about road and rail connectivity and tourism, as well as gas and electricity exports from Iran to Pakistan, adding that they also reviewed regional security issues with a particular focus on developments in Afghanistan and South Asia.
During the press conference, Amir-Abdollahian also touched upon the Vienna talks to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, saying that “Iran has never escaped the negotiating table and we believe that negotiation and diplomacy is the best way to reach agreement.”
The two had met on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos late in May, calling for bolstering bilateral cooperation. But relations were strained recently over Pakistani allegations of Iranian involvement with a militant separatist group. Among other issues is Islamabad’s challenge to maintain a delicate balance in ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia, whose ties have soured in recent years.
Two IRGC Aerospace Force officers whose deaths were announced Sunday were engaged in "developing arms for Lebanon's Hezbollah," Iran International has learned.
Ali Kamani and Mohammad Abdus, both Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace engineers, "were not killed in accidents" as the Islamic Republic claimed, an informed source told Iran International on Monday.
The two died in separate incidents in two different areas, but the source did not provide further details about the circumstances of their deaths. What was clear from the information received is that the two officers did not die as a result of a car or work place accident.
It is noteworthy that the source emphasized their role in developing weapons for the militant group Hezbollah, which poses a serious threat to Israel with a large arsenal of missiles provided by Iran.
Iranian media first announced that Kamani, a relatively junior officer, died in a “car accident in line of duty” in Khomein, in central Iran.
A few hours later, news came that another aerospace Force officer had also died in the province of Semnan "on lime of duty". Iran's space launch center is located in Semnan. In the reports by the Iranian Media, he was said to be working for the Defense Ministry.
The IRGC aerospace force is tasked with Iran’s missile development and space program. The country has made considerable progress in developing long-range ballistic missiles that can threaten the far fringes of the Middle East, including Israel.
A series of other killings and deaths among IRGC ranks in Iran in recent weeks has led to suspicion that they might have been targets of a secret series of operations, purportedly by Israel’s Mossad.
Considering recent killings of other Revolutionary Guard officers in Iran, some Iranians on social media drew the conclusion that the latest deaths most likely were part of a highly professional anti-IRGC operation carried out with precision.
Last Monday, an Israeli website reported the death of Iranian scientist Kamran Mollapour, who was reportedly working at Natanz nuclear facility in central Iran. This came as conflicting reports were still circulating about the death of Iranian aerospace scientist Ayoob Entezari -- who held a PhD in mechanical and aerospace engineering -- with some calling it an assassination and government saying he died of food poisoning.
Reports about Entezari’s fate came a day after Iran confirmed the death of a colonel from the Quds Force, Ali Esmailzadeh of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the second in two weeks from the unit which allegedly oversees terror operations abroad.
Iranian government and IRGC media said that Col. Esmailzadeh died “in an incident in recent days” at his home without mentioning any details after Iran International quoted sources in Iran as saying that the IRGC killed him over suspicions of espionage. Officials of the Revolutionary Guard told Esmailzadeh’s family that the reason for his death was suicide.
He was a close colleague of Colonel Hassan Sayyad-Khodaei, the acting commander of the elite Qods Unit 840, who was earlier shot dead behind the wheel of his car outside his home in Tehran on May 22 by two gunmen who fled the scene on a motorbike. The sources said that the IRGC became suspicious that Esmailzadeh divulged information about his colleague and decided to eliminate him.
Saudi Arabia has refused to accept 6,500 Iranian Hajj pilgrims who had been vaccinated against coronavirus with Iranian-made Barekat vaccines.
According to Iranian state-owned paper JameJam, they all had to be vaccinated once again with one of the vaccines approved by Riyadh.
After two years of pared-down pilgrimage due to Covid-19 pandemic restrictions, this year Saudi authorities will permit one million Muslims from inside and outside the country to participate. About 40,000 Iranians are set to attend.
Iraq, with a population of over 40 million, vaccinated 18 percent of its population, short of a 40 percent target set last year by the World Health Organization for January 2022, but has reported about 25,000 deaths. Iran has vaccinated 70 percent and has reported about 141,000 deaths.
Iran has approved at least six homegrown vaccines for production, although some have not completed trials. Most of the 147 million doses administered in Iran are Sinopharm Chinese vaccines, recognized by the World Health Organization.
In January 2021, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei banned the purchase of American and British vaccines, and the state began pushing for homegrown variants.
In September 2021, more controversy ensued when a former member of parliament alleged that Barakat, the most well-connected vaccine developer received one billion dollars from the state in advance and delivered only a fraction of the quantity promised.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein has criticized the Islamic Republic of Iran's interference in Iraq's internal affairs, saying Baghdad's tone has changed vis-à-vis Tehran.
In an interview with the Egyptian Alghad TV channelaired on Sunday, he said that Tehran has begun to hear a new language from Baghdad, which did not exist before, noting that Iranian interference in Iraq is “unacceptable."
“These problems regarding Iranian interference whether political or otherwise, we have started talking with the Iranian side differently,” he added.
The Iraqi diplomat said Baghdad’s ties with Iran have passed a level of silence and reached a level of frankness.
“We have told our Iranian brothers that we are geographical neighbors and that will stay...therefore we need cooperation, we do not need interference from Iran. Interference in Iraqi affairs cannot be accepted from any state,” Hussein said.
Lawmakers from the Sadrist bloc in Iraq's parliament resigned on Sunday after their leader, powerful Shiite Muslim cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, asked them to step down amid a prolonged stalemate over forming a government without former Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his Iran-aligned coalition.
On Saturday, Hussein said that Iraq had submitted a formal complaint to Iran for its aggressive behaviors toward Iraq and the Kurdistan Autonomous Region, and denied Iran's allegations that the Israeli Mossad is present in Erbil, stressing that Iran must refrain from attacks on the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
“We find it strange that Iran chose the Kurdistan region to respond to Israel,” he said.
In March, Iran fired missiles at Erbil. No one was killed but missiles did damage to some residential buildings. Iran claimed it used 12 ballistic missiles in that attack and targeted an Israeli intelligence center.
Israel has warned Iran not to harm its citizens who are in Turkey, after a travel advisory for Israelis to avoid visiting the country where Iranian agents are known to operate.
Israel urged its citizens Monday to avoid Istanbul or to return home because of what it said was a threat of Iranian attempts to kill or abduct vacationing Israelis.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said a "huge effort" by Israel's security forces had saved "Israeli lives in recent weeks" and thanked the Turkish government for its contribution.
He did not give further details. An Israeli security official told Reuters Turkey had arrested several suspected "operatives" of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
"We are calling on Israelis not to fly to Istanbul - and if you don't have a vital reason, don't fly to Turkey. If you are already in Istanbul, return to Israel as soon as possible," Lapid said in a televised statement.
"These terrorist threats are aimed at vacationing Israelis. They are selecting, in a random but deliberate manner, Israeli citizens with a view to kidnapping or murdering them," he said.
"I want, from here, to relay a message to the Iranians as well. Whoever harms Israelis will not get away with it. Israel's long arm will get them, no matter where they are."
Tehran has vowed to retaliate against Israel, which it blames for the May 22 killing of Hassan Sayyad-Khodaei, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps colonel who was shot dead at the wheel of his car by two people on a motorcycle.
Israel neither confirmed nor denied responsibility, its standard policy over accusations of assassinations. It accused Khodaei of having plotted attacks against its citizens worldwide.
