Israeli cybersecurity company CheckPoint revealed that Iranian hackers broke into the e-mail accounts of senior Israeli officials and carried out targeted "phishing" attacks against politicians and academics — some of whom have a high public profile.
Among the senior officials targeted were former Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a reserve general who dealt with sensitive and complex matters, the former US ambassador to Israel, and the head of a large security research institute in Israel.
Research by Check Point shows that the Iranian hackers 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.
For example, the e-mail account of the general in question was hacked and was used to target Tzipi Livni, the former foreign minister was asked to enter her email password in a Trojan file that had invited her to attend a conference abroad.