The credit card numbers and expiration dates of more than 400 Saudi Arabians were posted online yesterday (Jan. 10), the latest tactical strike in an ongoing battle between Israeli and Saudi hackers.
The financial data, which included cardholders' names, phone number and email addresses, appeared on the file hosting site Pastebin. A hacker calling himself Omer Cohen and using the tag "OxOmer" took credit for the leak.
Cohen's hack comes as retaliation for the theft and leak of about 15,000 Israeli's credit card numbers by a Saudi hacker calling himself "0xOmar." A member of the known hacking collective, "Group-XP," 0xOmar posted the pilfered financial data Jan. 3, in what appeared to be a politically motivated attack against supporters of what 0xOmar called "Israeli Zionist Rabbis."
Last week, an unnamed Israeli hacker told the Israeli tabloid Ynet he was planning to take revenge for the incident in a strike that "will cause severe damage to the privacy of Saudi citizens."
Omer Cohen told Ynet that he is a solider in an Israeli intelligence unit, the Associated Press reported. Although he reportedly leaked the Saudi credit cards, the Israeli hacking group Cohen belongs to told the AP that Cohen leaked the data without consulting them and is a "rogue member" of their group.