A cache of data that reportedly includes COVID-19 vaccination records and other confidential details is being marketed for sale on the internet and through Telegram. The sellers, who are believed to be from Canada, claim that the database holds roughly 500,000 records, allegedly obtained from the hacker collective Anonymous. The precise origin of the files remains uncertain, and those offering them are demanding approximately $1 million in exchange for the entire collection. To entice buyers, the group has shared a preview containing around 500 documents, which appear to be screenshots of vaccination certificates.
The certificates in question date back to 2021, near the conclusion of the pandemic. Erez Dasa, a cybersecurity expert and the administrator of the Telegram channel “Cyber News,” was the first to disclose the existence of the database. He noted that the group responsible for the sale has identified itself as antisemitic, though the source of the stolen data is still unknown.
“The information belongs to the COVID-19 period, but I don’t recall it being published before. It includes sensitive identifying details like names, ID numbers, birth dates, and information about administered vaccinations. So far, the attackers have published around 500 images, but they claim that the database contains approximately 500,000 unique files, which they are willing to sell for about $1 million ($2 per file),” Dasa said.
At present, it remains unclear whether the perpetrators are primarily motivated by antisemitic or anti-Israel sentiments, or if their main goal is financial gain. On their X channel, the group refers to itself as “ILleak” and asserts that its actions are politically driven against Israel. However, groups with activist agendas typically release leaked information for public exposure rather than selling it. The group also claims to have amassed roughly 80 million data points from approximately 8 million Israeli individuals, totaling around 15 terabytes of data.
The group’s website lists various other databases they claim to have breached. These include data stolen from the Atraf website in 2021, Facebook during the same year, the Likud party’s Elector app in 2020, and what they allege to be records from a vaccination card application. The latest batch of data was reportedly made available online in late February by Anonymous and consists of 543,292 files in total.
Since the outbreak of the war, cyberattacks targeting Israeli institutions have escalated dramatically, revealing significant security lapses across multiple digital platforms, websites, and communication networks. Many of these breaches have been attributed to a lack of proper security measures by those responsible for safeguarding the data.
In parallel, soldiers have been posting large amounts of personal content on social media, inadvertently exposing themselves to adversaries. This has led to cases where hostile entities have used the shared materials to falsely accuse soldiers of committing crimes during their deployment in Gaza and elsewhere. Furthermore, there have been incidents in which databases containing private details, photographs, and other sensitive information about high-ranking officials have been leaked, often due to security breaches in their personal mobile devices.
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