Channels

Photo: Daniel Elior
Lior Sharabi, alleged blackmailer, in court
Photo: Daniel Elior

Man blackmails Bank Yahav, threatens to divulge clients' identification details

32 year old from northern Israel town of Pardes Hanna-Karkur arrested on suspicion of stealing information about clients of Bank Yahav and other companies and threatening to publish it unless he's paid more than a million shekels in Bitcoin.

Police arrested early Sunday morning a suspect from the northern Israel town of Pardes Hanna-Karkur on suspicion he attempted to blackmail Bank Yahav, as well as other companies in return for a large financial ransom.

 

 

Lior Sharabi, 32, threatened to publish the companies' client databases unless he received a sum of more than a million shekels, paid in the Bitcoin virtual currency. He was arrested following a covert investigation by Lahav 433's cyber division, in collaboration with the National Authority for Cyber Defense and police organizations from abroad. In addition, the investigation also included, uniquely, inquiries on the "darknet".

 

Alleged Bank Yahav blackmailer Lior Sharabi (Photo: Daniel Elior) (Photo: Daniel Elior)
Alleged Bank Yahav blackmailer Lior Sharabi (Photo: Daniel Elior)

 

Investigation began a month prior when Sharabi—a former employee of a company supplying services to several banks and government ministries, including Bank Yahav—emailed the management of the bank and other companies.

 

The police suspects he was able to gain access to the bank's databases, including client identification details, and demanded a ransom in return for not for not releasing or selling the data.

 

Cyber investigators and the Israel Police's negotiations unit started corresponding with the blackmailer via email in order to trace his location and compile evidence against him. The suspect exchanged some 20 emails in all during his blackmail attempt.

 

Special Lahav 433 teams searched several scenes Sunday to locate and neutralize the suspect while also taking control of his computer and web access.

 

"In addition to the police investigation, National Cyber Defense Authority teams, together with the Banking Supervision, acted to make sure no damage was done to the organization's systems and no client accounts were compromised," said the police.

 

The suspect was brought before the Rishon Lezion Magistrates' court Sunday where deliberations were held over whether he should be further remanded. He was remanded for eight more days. 

 

"This was a break-in to a provider of a marketing email service's database," said Bank Yahav's in an official response. "It's an external company holding no financial data regarding the bank's clients. Regardless, the bank has transferred all relevant data to the police, the National Cyber Defense Authority and the Bank of Israel. The bank possesses information security measures of the highest caliber that have not been breached. Further tests carried out by the Authority have shown that the bank's systems are impregnable and that no information has been leaked."

 


פרסום ראשון: 08.20.17, 20:15
 new comment
Warning:
This will delete your current comment