Israel Says It Will Treat Online Credit Card Theft As It Would Terrorism

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Israel Says It Will Treat Online Credit Card Theft As It Would Terrorism

Posted by timothy on Saturday January 7, 2012 @06:35AM from the willing-to-donate-a-hammer dept.

In the wake of the online theft of at least 6,000 credit card numbers belonging to Israelis, Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said that "Israel has active capabilities for striking at those who are trying to harm it, and no agency or hacker will be immune from retaliatory action." Also at Reuters, with a few more details about the believed thief, known as OxOmar: "After Israeli media ran what they said were interviews conducted with OxOmar over email, the Haaretz newspaper said a blogger had tracked the hacker down and determined he was a 19-year-old citizen of the United Arab Emirates studying and working in Mexico."

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Retaliatory action? by vakuona · 2012-01-07 06:37 · Score: 5, Insightful

What are they going to do, kill him?
1. Re:Retaliatory action? by retech · 2012-01-07 06:41 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Of course they'll kill them. Since Israel is ALWAYS the victim (sic) and the only way they can enact justice is to butcher the criminal and his family and his friends and his friend's families. And rightfully so. All those people were either active participants in the crime or had committed thought crime by inaction. They all deserve the same retribution. It's what Israel does best. I think we should send them more money because they are such a victim all the time they need more weapons.
2. Re:Retaliatory action? by dmesg0 · 2012-01-07 06:55 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Israel is and always was the aggressor! They kill millions of innocent unarmed palestinians every day, use their heads to play soccer, and the rest of the bodies to provide blood for their matzos.
  Absolutely everybody knows that.
3. Re:Retaliatory action? by alphatel · 2012-01-07 07:07 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Here's 5 pence. Go and have your sarcasm detector adjusted.
  Seriously, only weeks after the US declares all terrorists will be held indefinitely without regard to citizenship. Pick up a CC you find on the street, expect to surrender your rights as an American.
  
  --
  When the foot seeks the place of the head, the line is crossed. Know your place. Keep your place. Be a shoe.
4. Re:Retaliatory action? by tomhudson · 2012-01-07 07:08 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Not necessarily. 3/4 of the people whose credit card numbers were stolen refuse to complain, because the thief is charging less on them than their kids were.
  They want to contact this guy to see what he can do about their kids cell phone bills.
5. Re:Retaliatory action? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-07 07:18 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Just like how hundreds of Israelis are driven off their land and have their olive groves bulldozed so Palestinian settlements can be built on their land? (free of any other races or religions of course). Isn't that how it works?
  Those poor poor Israelis, having to suffer with their billion dollars in aid so they can turn around and compete with the US.
  Now the ultra-orthodox are taking over Israel so the rest of the population can reap the Jewish extremism they have fostered.
6. Re:Retaliatory action? by timeOday · 2012-01-07 07:35 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The whole agression vs. retaliation dichotomy is pretty meaningless when talking about two sides that have been trading blows almost continually for decades.
7. Re:Retaliatory action? by chrb · 2012-01-07 07:51 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Secondly, last I recall, citizens in other countries don't fear being blown up, shot, kidnapped, and tortured by Israelis.
  Do citizens of Gaza and the West Bank count?
  
  you do realize that the enemies of Israel such as Egypt actually receive more US aid.
  Incorrect. Israel gets $3 billion per year. Egypt gets $1.3 billion. Israel has a population of 7.6 million. Egypt has 81 million. So per capita aid is many times higher for Israel.
8. Re:Retaliatory action? by DrVomact · 2012-01-07 08:20 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  I'd reply, but I'm afraid the Mossad would treat me as a terrorist.
  
  --
  Great men are almost always bad men--Lord Acton's Corollary
9. Re:Retaliatory action? by Anonymous Coward · 2012-01-07 08:30 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  So I suggest you shove your snarky veiled anti-semetic, inaccurate, misinformed comment you know where.
  Critical of Israel != anti-semitic
10. Re:Retaliatory action? by SplashMyBandit · 2012-01-07 08:45 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Kick ass post! Very well reasoned and accurate as far as I have seen as an open-minded foreign visitor (from New Zealand) to your country and your neighbours - even meeting some Hezbollah dudes in the Golan (who were total uncool arseholes in my opinion).
  I know you are just being modest for the uninformed, but from the statement "(suprisingly many israeli newspapers are left wing and anti-govt before you call bias)" I would remove the word "surprisingly". Anyone who has ever followed the Israeli points-of-view (in addition to others) couldn't miss the fact that Israel has a wide spectrum of opinions (a sign of a very healthy, open, and diverse society in my opinion).
  I hope that one day your neighbours value life and liberty as much as your countrymen do. Not all of the citizens of the world are fooled by the pro-terrorist propaganda, or the bullshit from their sychophants elsewhere.
11. Re:Retaliatory action? by wagnerrp · 2012-01-07 09:27 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  If they're killing millions of Palestinians every day, where are all these new Palestinians coming from? They must be rolling through the entire global population every decade or two. Surely such an untapped renewable resource could somehow be put towards power generation. Just think of all the energy stored in that biomass!
12. Re:Retaliatory action? by bjourne · 2012-01-07 15:24 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Do you ever in your nationalistic fervor reflect upon the fact that in the last major bout between Israel and Hamas in December 2008, 1200 Palestinians were killed and what, 2 Israelis were? All 1200 were terrorists so it doesn't matter? Why is it that for every one Israeli killed, hundreds of Palestinians die and Israel can still maintain an image of taking the high ground and being the victim?
  
  --
  Football Odds
The new catch phrase apparently by nurb432 · 2012-01-07 06:38 · Score: 5, Insightful

Just call every crime terrorism.
Sad really, as it 'normalizes' the true acts of terrorism. If everything is labeled terrorism, it becomes 'yet another crime' and is ignored.

--
---- Booth was a patriot ----
1. Re:The new catch phrase apparently by Morty · 2012-01-07 06:44 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  They didn't say it is terrorism, they said they would use the same tools as for terrorism. That is, they know it's not terrorism, but think that the same tools would be useful.
2. Re:The new catch phrase apparently by cshark · 2012-01-07 07:25 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  And you obviously don't know or understand anything about the way Israel handles things. Please don't say things like this unless you've had the some education on the subject, please.
  The reason it's a big deal out there is because they don't have the kind of laws for consumer protection that we do. Someone steals your credit card, and runs up a $30,000 tab, you pay it... or you go to jail. Period. So think about it this way. If someone effectively bombs your life, by taking your credit card, and shoots you with a debt you cannot pay and the ire of a state that takes debt VERY seriously... how is it not an act of terrorism? That's literally destroying someone's life.
  What I'm wondering though, is if this means Israel will start negotiating with credit card thieves, and giving them what they want while getting nothing in return. We'll have to see.
  
  --
  This signature has Super Cow Powers
3. Re:The new catch phrase apparently by CapOblivious2010 · 2012-01-07 08:07 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Imagine if your country had been declared war upon (by multiple other countries) the very the day it was founded. Imagine if your country had been in an existential war with most of these countries more or less continuously for over half a century. Imagine if your country suffered an average of about 3 rocket attacks PER DAY for 8 straight years. Imagine if those same countries send suicide bombers into your country about once a month on average, and those attacks intentionally killed many hundreds of innocent civilians, and wounded thousands more. Imagine that your country has nuclear weapons, but refrains from using them against it's enemies.
  
  Now imagine that no matter how you react, someone who doesn't live under these conditions accuses you of overreacting and not having any sort of perspective.
4. Re:The new catch phrase apparently by maxwell+demon · 2012-01-07 08:18 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  The reason it's a big deal out there is because they don't have the kind of laws for consumer protection that we do.
  If the problem is insufficient consumer protection laws, wouldn't the right solution be ... wait for it ... better consumer protection laws?
  
  --
  The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
5. Re:The new catch phrase apparently by chrb · 2012-01-07 15:42 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  the supposed civilian statistics thrown up by the palestinians are weighted EXTREMELY heavily towards males over the age of 14 and under 40.
  
  And how do you account for the civilian statistics thrown up by the Israelis? Palestinian civilian casualities in the second intifada:
  
  According to B'Tselem, of the 6,484 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces since the beginning of the Second Intifada, 3,036 did not take part in hostilities while 2,248 did so. The remainder (950 individuals) were either police officers killed at their police stations or otherwise uncertain as to whether they took part in the hostilities. 1,329 (20,5 percent) of those killed were minors. A further 53 Palestinians were killed by Israeli civilians.
  
  B'Tselem is an Israeli non-governmental organization (NGO). It calls itself "The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories". The group was founded on February 3, 1989 by a group of prominent Israeli public figures, including lawyers, academics, journalists, and members of the Knesset.
  B'Tselem is Israeli, it was founded by respected prominent Israelis, and it says 1329 Palestinian children were killed by Israelis in the second intifada, and that children were 20% of the total Palestinians killed. They also say that the majority of all Palestinians killed took no part in hostilities ie. most of the people killed by the Israeli military were civilians. Odd that you were moderated up to +5, when you offer no evidence for your personal opinion, and it is contrary to all the established evidence from both sides in the conflict.
The original 0xOmar post on pastebin by dmesg0 · 2012-01-07 06:45 · Score: 4, Insightful

Here is an excerpt from 0xOmar's original post on pastebin:

It's first part of our release, my goal is reacing 1 million non-duplicate people, which is 1/6 of Israel's population.
...
What's fun for us?
- Watching 400,000 people gathered in front of Israeli credit card companies and banks, complaining about cards and that they are stolen
- Watching Israeli banks shredding 400,000 credit cards and re-generate new cards (so costly, huh?)
- Watching people purchasing stuff for theirself using the cards and making Israeli credit cards untrustable in the world, like Nigerian credit cards
- and much more...
The alleged goal is to hurt lots of random people without any personal gain. And what is the goal of terrorism?
1. Re:The original 0xOmar post on pastebin by tsotha · 2012-01-07 06:52 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  The goal of terrorism is, you now, terror, not "Aw crap, this is going to be a hassle."
2. Re:The original 0xOmar post on pastebin by tsotha · 2012-01-07 07:08 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Uh huh. "Cyberterrorism" is a bullshit plea for funding in a post 9/11 political environment. It's not terrorism.
3. Re:The original 0xOmar post on pastebin by 10101001+10101001 · 2012-01-07 07:12 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  The alleged goal is to hurt lots of random people without any personal gain.
  Read those lines carefully. The goals seems more than anything to hurt Israeli banks. That may or may not be for personal gain--one can presumably play the money market towards that end. The fact that lots of random people are hurt is an indirect consequence, not the objective goal.
  
  And what is the goal of terrorism?
  "the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes." Now, if the above is an attempt to cause Israel harm through its banks or to change the banking system through political acts...but even then, there's no violence involved and while the suggested interpretation of resulting events from the leak are intimidating and coercive, the fact that they're actually releasing the credit card details make it more than just a threat. So, no, overall, I'd guess the term you're looking for is the term "asshole". Sure, terrorists might be assholes, but not all assholes are terrorists.
  If anything, this sounds like a case of (a) if all you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail--and Israel sure likes it anti-terrorism hammer--and (b) just another example of political corruption where instead of punishing the banks for somehow fucking up so badly that the information was leaked online and calling for their heads (figuratively) they're more interested in calling for the heads (literally) of the people who exposed just how fucked up securing that data was--an act that is ultimately self-defeating if it were meant to protect those random people who are hurt as instead of using the opportunity for a very public, open expose on the issues with the banking system as a justification to fix those problems they've chosen to focused on attacking the messengers (evil bastards that they are) and leaving tons of other crooks to do the same thing in secret (although I guess Israel could always send its secret police into other countries to execute the crooks, but they can't advertise that as a deterrent, so that rather counters the whole idea that this is more a symbolic thing to draw attention to avoid future breaches).
  In short, this is why calling everything terrorism is fucked up. It solves nothing, blurs the evil that terrorism is, and demonstrates how beholden governments are to their people: those (people and organizations) with money and not the average person.
  PS - This doesn't mean I don't think the leakers shouldn't be punished both for the breach and the leak. But that doesn't justify any claim of terrorism nor the focus on the leakers seemingly over and above those that allowed the leak. Either Israeli banks are secure or they are not. If they're not--which seems to be demonstrated--and one's whole country is dependent upon them, I'd be more upset and focused on them failing in their duty than the countless evil or assholic people in the world who would exploit such businesses. I mean, there's an implied fraud given the reasonable expectations of what a bank is supposed to be, a firm that will securely hold your money; it's harder to be upset at the child/man/bastard who shows everyone the emperor wears no clothes.
  
  --
  Eurohacker European paranoia, gun rights, and h
4. Re:The original 0xOmar post on pastebin by tsotha · 2012-01-07 09:59 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  If it was YOUR credit card, or your wife's, or child's (if you are older) then you would want your state to take action.
  Sure. I'd want the state to do what it takes to stop him, just like I want them to stop bank robbers and shoplifters.
  
  To me it seems that your political views about "funding in a post 9/11 political environment" has overriden your human empathy.
  No, not really. I recognize bureaucrats twist language in an effort to get funding.
  
  As in all such cases the best thing to do would be to put aside your political and worldviews for a while and ask yourself the very simple question, "What should be done if this happened to ME or MY FAMILY?".
  
  "What should be done?" isn't the same question as "Is this terrorism?"
This is not theft by u17 · 2012-01-07 06:54 · Score: 4, Insightful

The original owners did not lose their credit card numbers. Therefore it's not theft, it's unauthorised copying! I'm surprised that this is pointed out so many times under articles about file sharing, but not in cases like this.
1. Re:This is not theft by Hentes · 2012-01-07 07:30 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  It's not the accounts that get stolen but the money. Just like a train robbery doesn't mean a theft of trains.
True terrorism by formfeed · 2012-01-07 06:56 · Score: 5, Funny

True terrorism is a criminal act that terrorizes beyond the actual incident. In my opinion, these things should also be added to that list:
High school mobbing.
Tail gating drivers.
The NY Yankees.
Clowns.
Re:Run to the USA to fund the murder of the purps? by bored_engineer · 2012-01-07 07:53 · Score: 5, Informative

The average Israeli gets more USA federal tax dollars spent on them than the average USA citizen.
Can you support this? I went looking, and it seems that Israel receives about $3,000,000,000 in aid. With a population of about 7.8 million people, this works out to less than $400/person.
This page, the 2011 federal budget was about $3.5E12. If you focus on the social programs, retirement benefits and highway spending, then these account for about 68% of the federal budget. Dividing this total by a population of about 310 million people, I arrive at a total spending figure of about $7,700 per US citizen.
I've double-checked everything and can't see where I've made a mistake, other than in the arbitrary decision to exclude all defense, research and interest payments.
Re:Run to the USA to fund the murder of the purps? by slasho81 · 2012-01-07 09:07 · Score: 4, Interesting

The oft neglected fact is that US aid to Israel must be spent on US products and services. That money usually ends in the hands of military equipment manufacturers which employ US citizens who pressure their congressmen to continue to give that aid which is basically a subsidy for US factories of a very certain kind and location. Politics as usual.
Re:Run to the USA to fund the murder of the purps? by HonestButCurious · 2012-01-07 09:27 · Score: 4, Interesting

US FMF grants to Israel in 2011, divided by the population of Israel in 2011, ends up as $384 per capita. The 2011 US budget, divided by the population of the US in 2011, ends up as $11,897 per capita. That's ignoring the fact that Israel has to spend the FMF money in the USA, in effect subsidising the American military-industrial complex.
Protip: Don't post bullshit pseudo-statistics to Slashdot - we guys love our calculators.