After the re-escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict last week, hackers across the world have declared virtual war on Israel, attacking and defacing websites and social media profiles. Tuesday night, a hacker's group called ZHC claimed its first big victim: Israeli Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom.
ZHC hacked Shalom's Twitter, Facebook and YouTube accounts earlier today. It's unclear how they did it, but if the same password was used for each account, only one may have needed to be hacked.
Anonymous, the global hacking collective, announced the hack on Twitter.
#OpIsrael | HACKED: @silvanshalom, Israeli Vice Prime Minister #Gaza— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) November 21, 2012
The accounts have now been restored but they were taken over for several hours. Shalom's Facebook cover picture was replaced with an image of a Palestinian militant and the writing "Free Palestine."
The Israeli official's Twitter account was also revamped and began broadcasting messages in support of the Palestinian population. One of the tweets read: "FREE PALESTINE! END THE OCCUPATION! STOP THE MURDER OF PALESTINIANS NOW!!!! #GAZA."
The hackers also replace Shalom's Twitter cover photo with the image of a big banner that read: "Stop killing people you fucking twats." In his account, the banner was wrapped around Shalom's profile picture.
Anonymous also hinted the hackers might have access to Shalom's email account and even his phone number. ZHC has already announced that it plans on releasing more information tomorrow, including Shalom's contacts and documents.
So who wants #Israel's Vice Prime Minister Mister Sinister #SilvanShalom's personal phone number? @gazaunderattack #Gaza #FreePalestine— ZCompanyHackingCrew (@Z_H_C_) November 21, 2012
o_O So what would happen if a certain vice prime ministers email got released to the public? #OpIsrael #Anonymous— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) November 21, 2012
Even though Anonymous announced ZHC's hack on the group's official Twitter account with the hashtag #OpIsrael, ZHC distanced itself from its more famous counterpart, tweeting that "ZHC are not Anonymous. We work with Anon on some projects but we are a completely separate team." The group also clarified that they are not part of any "cyberwar," but only hacked Shalom's accounts "to show solidarity with Gaza and raise voice against Israeli brutalities."
