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Israeli intelligence has uncovered an Iranian cell that ran a phishing campaign targeting state employees and researchers to get intelligence about the occupation state, Israeli media reported yesterday.
According to Shin Bet, Iranians would contact Israeli targets on LinkedIn claiming they were their acquaintances and the conversations would move to email.
Then, Shin Bet said, the operatives would either invite them to a conference by sending them a document with further details, or share a research paper.
Once opened, the document would allow complete access to the targets' computers. None of the attempts succeeded, the intelligence agency said.
The Times of Israel reported Shin Bet saying the initial messages with the Israelis were carefully written based on research the Iranian operatives had conducted into the various targets, with the subject matter being of specific interest to each target.
The agency said it managed to foil the attempts after many of the Israeli targets contacted authorities.
"The Shin Bet, along with its partners in the intelligence community, are working to disrupt and thwart Iranian attempts to collect information on Israeli citizens, and calls on the public to be alert to the 'phishing' phenomenon on the Internet," the Times of Israel reported Shin Bet saying.
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