Handala hacktivists set sights on Israeli officials’ Telegram accounts

Iran-linked hacktivist operation Handala has targeted the Telegram accounts of multiple Israeli political figures as part of last month's Operation Octopus, GBHackers News reports.

After an initial strike at former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's iPhone 13 that purportedly compromised contact lists, videos, photos, and nearly 1,900 chat conversations, Handala claimed breaching the iPhone of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Chief of Staff Tzachi Braverman, with the hacktivists leaking unclassified documents, according to a report from the KELA Cyber Intelligence Center.

Analysis of the data exposed by Handala following Israel's denial of the breach revealed that only about 40 of the chats had actual messages, while leaked contacts were associated with Telegram accounts, indicating that the data had been obtained from Telegram account access and not from more advanced extraction efforts. Researchers said that the intrusion highlights security weaknesses in Telegram, which should prompt the activation of cloud passwords, active session audits, and more robust SIM security measures.