Fake Profiles: The IDF Thwarted an Attempt to Harm Soldiers

The IDF announced today (Thursday) that in recent days, it thwarted an infrastructure of fictitious profiles operated by Iran and its proxies for Hamas with the aim of extracting information from IDF soldiers.

According to an IDF spokesperson, in recent days, the military intelligence thwarted a cyber infrastructure of avatars that operated on social networks with the goal of extracting information about the IDF's forces and activities. One of the methods used to extract information from soldiers involved creating authentic personas that initiated a form of romantic connection, using various means such as conversations, messaging, voice recordings, and video calls.

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The IDF reports that each avatar (fake profile) is part of a network of avatars whose role is to strengthen their credibility on social media by impersonating family members and friends. This network included around dozens of profiles on social networks, with a focus on Instagram, targeting hundreds to thousands of IDF soldiers in regular and reserve service. In addition to thwarting the operation, there is a block and filter channel for avatars in the national channel.

Attempts to tip the scale of the continuation of the fighting

The head of the IDF Information Security Division, Brigadier General G, commented on the thwarted threat: "We identify the purpose of the enemy's attempts to collect intelligence on IDF soldiers, which could potentially affect the course of the ongoing conflict."

According to him, "The Information Security Division operates regularly, both in peacetime and during combat, to systematically identify expression infrastructure and neutralize them. In the face of the dangerous temptation network, smart technological monitoring means of the system are deployed. At the same time, the potential damage of similar expression infrastructures is high, requiring utmost vigilance from IDF soldiers in this matter."