The Lod resident was not privy to any secure information, according to the Israel Security Agency.

By JNS

A former house cleaner at the private residence of Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz was convicted on Tuesday of attempting to pass information to an enemy entity.

Omri Goren, a 38-year-old resident of Lod, was found guilty by the Rishon Lezion District Court of attempting to transmit information to Iran-linked hackers. He was sentenced to three years in prison as part of a plea deal that saw espionage charges withdrawn from the indictment.

According to the Israeli Justice Ministry, Goren informed the Black Shadow hackers group that in exchange for money, he could deliver information on Gantz and install malware on his computer.

The Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) said Goren did not have access to any security-related materials at Gantz’s home. The agency opened an internal investigation to determine how the cleaner, who had a criminal record and was hired before Gantz entered politics, was allowed to continue working for the minister.

“[Goren] is not a spy, and this isn’t a spying scandal. This is a man who found himself entangled in debt and identified a security breach,” said Goren’s lawyers, Gal Wolf and Anat Yaari, i24 News reported.

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The suspect was planning to infect Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s computer with spyware and send sensitive information to Iranian entities.

By Tobias Siegal, World Israel News

A housekeeping employee at Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s private residence was arrested on espionage charges, Hebrew media reported Thursday.

According to his indictment, Omri Goren Korokovsky, 37, who was employed as a housekeeper at Gantz’s home, was planning to infect the minister’s computer with spyware and send sensitive information to Iranian entities.

The suspect went as far as contacting members of the Iran-affiliated Black Shadow hacker group via the messaging app Telegram, and asked that they provide him with software that would allow him to gain access to Gantz’s computer, the indictment read. His contact with the hackers through Telegram is what eventually led to his arrest, despite attempting to cover his tracks by deleting the conversations, Kan News reported.

During his interrogation, the suspect confessed to taking pictures of several items in Gantz’s house and obtaining photos that he later sent to the hackers in order to prove that he had access and could get the job done.

One of the pictures provided by the suspect was released by the Iranian hackers in late October.

ביבי: “האקרים איראנים מחזיקים בידיהם תמונות של בני גנץ שיגרמו לו מבוכה קשה”.
התמונות המביכות של בני גנץ: pic.twitter.com/Ggnp6z1AYg

— Amit Gilboa (@F4TMONK3Y) October 27, 2021

According to the Shin Bet, the suspect was not able to access any classified information before being arrested, due to information security procedures in place in Gantz’s residence.

The indictment noted that the suspect has extensive criminal history that includes five prior convictions in 14 different cases, including two attempted bank robberies, for which he has served four years in prison.

Considering his prior criminal record, it is unclear at this point how the suspect was able to pass the security clearance required for being employed at the private residence of Israel’s defense minister.

According to Attorney Gal Wolf, who represents Korokovsky, his client had no intention of harming Israel’s national security and did what he did due to “economic distress.”

The Black Shadow hacker group has made headline in Israel after hacking into several Israeli companies and websites and releasing sensitive information of hundreds of thousands of Israelis.

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