Mossad Chief's Purported Tax Forms Leaked by Hackers Claiming to Represent Iran

An anonymous Telegram account leaked documents that it claimed belong to Mossad chief David Barnea, the latest in what Israeli officials believe is a revenge hack in response to an aerial attack in Iran last month.

The leaked documents were allegedly forms submitted to tax authorities in 2020, which Israeli security officials say were likely extracted by hackers from an old cellphone used by Barnea’s wife.

Earlier this week the account posted additional documents, among them videos and photos of Barnea and his family. The Mossad chief’s cellphone and personal commuter, which are encrypted and secured, were apparently not hacked.

According to the Telegram account, the hackers are working for Iran, leading Israel to believe that the material was posted to embarrass Israeli intelligence in retaliation for an assault that severely impaired Iran's drone array attributed to Israel.

Last week, Haaretz reported that hundreds of Iranian drones were destroyed in an aerial attack in Iran last month. Following the report's publication, numerous cyberattacks targeted Israeli government ministries.

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The attack on drones in Iran came in the wake of an Iranian rocket attack on a building in the city of Irbil, the capital of the northern Kurdish enclave of Iraq, between last Saturday night and Sunday. Iran claimed responsibility for the attack in Irbil, saying it had struck an Israeli military target operating at the site. The regional Kurdish government denied the Iranian report and said that the rockets had struck a civilian facility.