The homepage of an Israeli travel booking website that was hacked
Iranian hackers have recently targeted several travel booking sites of an Israeli company and stolen personal information of more than 300,000 Israelis.
Local media reported on Friday that Israel’s Privacy Protection Authority confirmed the incident, saying that it occurred two weeks ago.
Iranian hacker group, named Sharp Boys, claimed responsibility, saying in a photo posted on their Telegram channel that "Wherever you go, even on your trips, you are under our control. Remember our name."
The Privacy Protection Authority added following the hack it had immediately contacted the owner of Gol Tours LTD company, that owns over 20 popular travel booking websites, in an effort to address the security breach and make the necessary modifications but was met with a refusal to cooperate reportedly over the costs of the changes.
Authority officials raided the company’s offices on Thursday and seized its servers until the investigation over the cyberattack is complete.
The leaked data include telephone numbers, addresses, dates and locations of booked vacations, and sensitive medical information, the authority said in a statement.
Last week, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said a cyber unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard -- called “Shahid Kaveh” -- conducted research to damage ships, gas stations and industrial plants in several countries including Britain, the US, France and Israel.
Gantz hinted that Israel -- which is widely believed to have waged cyber war against Iran's nuclear facilities and other infrastructure -- may retaliate physically against enemy hackers.