Hackers threaten to release medical info of Netanyahu and thousands of Israelis
The cyberattack against Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak is being investigated for potential terrorist intent, despite the initial financial motive
Hackers threatened on Wednesday to upload sensitive personal and medical information, including on Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, after having claimed to infiltrate an Israeli hospital that was hit by a cyberattack last week.
Mayanei Hayeshua Medical Center in Bnei Brak was hacked on August 8, and it was initially suspected to have been carried out with financial incentives, but sources told Israel Hayom that a terrorist motive was being investigated.
"During the past week, the cyber experts of the Ministry of Health, the National Cyber System and the hospital have been working to manage the investigation of the cyber attack incident, including understanding the leak and its implications,” Mayanei Hayeshua responded in a press statement.
“There is no negotiation with the attackers, and as reported at the beginning of the attack, it is In an event with economic motives. When we have more details, we will update,” it added.
Wednesday’s threat came with a demand for millions of dollars, according to sources, but Israel’s National Cyber Directorate was reportedly still investigating a terrorist intent carried out by elements hostile to the Jewish state, and not the Ranger Locker group as initially reported.
Nevertheless, the group said it would release the sensitive personal data pertaining to Israel’s prime minister, as well as other lawmakers, high-profile Rabbis and spiritual leaders, and many more in the ultra-Orthodox public who visited the hospital in Bnei Brak.
Furthermore, the group claimed that the hundreds of thousands of medical documents in their possessions contained psychiatric findings and health tests of an extremely sensitive nature about various leaders that would shock the ultra-orthodox world and would also cause serious harm to ordinary families caught in the crosshairs.
Netanyahu underwent treatment related to the prostate gland at the hospital in 2015, and his medical information was reportedly at risk, which has been a concern due a surgery in the past month, in which the Israeli prime minister received a pacemaker, albeit at a different hospital in Tel Aviv, but the heart condition may have existed for years.