Israel promises to strike back after hacking attack

FOLLOWING A HACKING ATTACK that stole credit card details Israel has likened the theft to terrorism and vowed to take action.

Israel isn't too happy after thousands of its citizens' credit card details were posted online by a hacker, according to Reuters. The country said it was one of the worst attacks it has faced and compared the security breach to a terrorist operation.

Danny Ayalon, deputy foreign minister of Israel said it was "a breach of sovereignty comparable to a terrorist operation, and must be treated as such".

"Israel has active capabilities for striking at those who are trying to harm it, and no agency or hacker will be immune from retaliatory action," he added.

Commercial web sites were the focus of the attack and Ayalon said that Israel hasn't ruled out the possibility that the hacking was carried out by a "more organised and sophisticated" group rather than just one person.

The hacker, known as 0xomar, claims to have leaked personal information about more than 400,000 Israelis. However, credit card companies said 25,000 credit card numbers had been posted and some were expired.

The Haaretz newspaper claimed that the hacker had been tracked down by an unnamed blogger who discovered him to be a 19 year old United Arab Emirates student studying and working in Mexico. µ