Iran-Linked Hackers Say They Broke Into Yoav Gallant's Personal Communications, Accessed Sensitive Data

The Handala hacker group, which is affiliated with Iranian intelligence, announced overnight (Sunday) that it had breached the personal communications systems of former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. According to the group's statement, the breach allowed access to sensitive messages, classified documents, and contact lists.

The hackers say they posted data samples to prove the breach, including screenshots of conversations and phone lists. From the published materials, the exchanges appear to have been taken from apps like WhatsApp, alongside details from the contact list. The central threat concerns the claim that among the stolen files are precise coordinates for 11 secret military bases.

The group linked the current incident to a previous breach attributed to it—of former Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi's email inbox—and presented the move as part of a series of targeted attacks against senior figures in Israel. In recent days, there were also reports of a breach of an old email account of the head of the FBI, Kash Patel, although assessments indicate the information does not include up-to-date data from his current role.

Gil Messing, Chief of Staff at Check Point, commented on the incident: "Handala has been running an influence-focused cyber campaign for several years, grounded in a real attack and an actual achievement, leveraging the attack and its results to create a sense of vulnerability. Even today, in Gallant's case, they are publishing what appears to be access to the former minister's personal Telegram, similar to previous attacks carried out on the Telegram accounts of other public figures in Israel and in the U.S."

Messing continued: "They claim they have not published most of the material, and it is reasonable to believe they do indeed hold additional information.
For Iran, cyber warfare is an integral part of the war—one of its important pillars—aimed at creating a sense of vulnerability among its adversaries".