The Handala hacker group has launched a targeted campaign against Israeli high-tech and aerospace professionals, marking a concerning shift in geopolitically motivated cyber operations.
The group recently published a list of individuals working in these critical sectors, accompanied by hostile descriptions that falsely label them as criminals.
This campaign represents a significant escalation from traditional propaganda activities to active doxxing and intelligence gathering against private-sector employees.
The attack centers on the public exposure of personal and professional information belonging to Israeli specialists.
Handala released the dataset through their dark web platform and offered financial rewards to anyone willing to provide additional information about the targeted individuals.
This bounty-style approach creates a crowdsourced intelligence collection mechanism that amplifies the threat beyond the initial data leak and endangers ordinary professionals.
Trustwave security researchers identified this activity during ongoing dark web monitoring operations. Their analysis revealed that the published dataset relies heavily on information scraped from LinkedIn profiles.
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However, the researchers noted several inconsistencies within the data, including individuals who left their listed companies years ago, employees in non-sensitive roles, and profiles with no verifiable connection to the high-tech sector at all.
Data Manipulation and Weaponization Techniques
The technical analysis of Handala’s methods shows a combination of automated data scraping and manual data manipulation.
Several profiles could not be traced or verified, suggesting the group may be supplementing legitimate LinkedIn data with fabricated entries or information from unverifiable sources.
This approach allows them to inflate their target list while maintaining a veneer of authenticity that makes the campaign appear more comprehensive.
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The indiscriminate nature of this data collection demonstrates how publicly available information can be weaponized at scale.
By framing ordinary workers as criminal targets and pairing this with financial incentives for additional intelligence, Handala has created a dangerous mechanism that poses direct risks to the privacy, safety, and professional reputations of legitimate employees.
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Security experts recommend heightened personal data hygiene, continuous monitoring for identity-related threats, and organizational awareness programs to protect against similar targeting campaigns in the future.
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