Published on: August 1, 2024
A hacking group calling itself Zeus has taken responsibility for an attack on Israeli athletes during the 2024 Olympics.
Hackers leaked confidential information about the athletes, including their names, addresses, phone numbers, military status, medical tests, and more. Several are already reporting that they’re receiving death threats.
This group appears to be unrelated to the previous Zeus ransomware gang that was known for its Zeus trojan. Current evidence suggests that the current Zeus team is based in Iran and targets Israeli athletes for political motives.
The attack wasn’t without warning. Several copies of the letters sent by Foreign Minister Israel Katz to his French counterpart explained that the hackers wanted to disrupt the Olympics as a whole and cause psychological damage to Israeli athletes.
“We currently have assessments of potential threats from Iranian terror affiliates and other terrorist organizations aiming to carry out terror attacks against members of the Israeli delegation and Israeli tourists during the Olympics,” the letters read. It’s worth noting that the letters did not contain any specific intelligence on threats relating to the games.
Iran defended itself to the UN after the letters were released.
“Terrorist acts have no place in the principles of resistance groups; lies and deceit cannot switch the roles of the plaintiff and the accused,” Iran officials told journalists with Reuters.
At the moment, there is no conclusive evidence that the Iranian government is responsible for the attack. However, as a result of the hack, Israel increased the number of armed protection that each athlete received.
Zeus posted that the details came from a hack of the National Sports Center of Israel. They distributed information through an X account and a website, but both have been taken down. While there aren’t many details now, investigators in France have been tasked with learning more about the group responsible for the attack.