After Israeli push, Telegram blocks Iranian hackers

Iranian hackers demand $1 million, threaten to release stolen sensitive information.

By Aryeh Savir, TPS

The State Attorney’s Office’s Cyber Department has been working with Telegram since Saturday to block the activities of the Iranian Black Shadow group, which hacked multiple Israeli sites over the weekend.

Following the Israeli appeal, Telegram blocked the Black Shadow groups, which hacked personal information from Israeli sites hosted on CyberServe servers. The groups now appear as “private” and are not accessible to the general public.

Black Shadow hackers hit multiple Israeli companies through Cyberserve with a ransomware attack from Iran. The hackers are demanding $1 million in ransom in the next 48 hours, threatening to release stolen sensitive and private information.

Among the sites Black Shadow hacked was a Gay dating site, and the Black Shadow group has been posting users’ information in the past day, including email addresses, nicknames, and personal details, including if the subscriber is HIV positive.

The director of the Cyber Department, Dr. Haim Wismonsky, noted that the unit believes in removing content, websites, groups and users that violate the law.

Over the past year, the State Attorney’s Cyber Department has worked with Telegram on a variety of issues, shutting down groups that published content of women without their consent, groups of terrorist operatives, and violent groups calling for harm to Israeli residents.

The Cyber Department warned that it is quite possible that the Black Shadow will continue to upload and expose content in new groups that it will open on Telegram, the Darknet and the group’s website. However, the department intends to continue trying to take down the group’s sites.