Terrorist group aimed to exploit civilian contractor access to reach top IDF unit, prompting immediate protocol changes.
The Israel Defense Forces revealed on Sunday that Hamas attempted to breach its elite cyber-intelligence Unit 8200 by exploiting a publicly posted cleaning tender, prompting swift changes to military protocol for online publications.
The terrorist group reportedly discovered an open-call for cleaning services at one of Unit 8200’s bases and planned to use civilian contractor access as a pathway into the facility, which handles the bulk of Israel’s signals intelligence and cyber operations, reported Israel Hayom.
According to the IDF, the terrorist plot was uncovered by its enemy materiel exploitation unit in Gaza.
During recent military operations, troops seized technical documents showing Hamas had identified the tender and saw it as a potential gateway into one of the military’s most sensitive installations.
The tender was immediately withdrawn, and new guidelines were issued to tighten security for publishing military-related notices on the internet.
Unit 8200, Israel’s equivalent of the U.S. National Security Agency, is part of the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate and is responsible for signals intelligence (SIGINT), cyberwarfare, surveillance, and decryption.
It is assessed to contribute roughly 80% of Israel’s overall military intelligence.
The revelation comes as Unit 8200 remains under scrutiny following reports that critical systems crashed hours before the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led assault on southern Israel, which left 1,200 dead and 251 kidnapped.
According to a Channel 12 report, Unit 8200’s surveillance tools only resumed full operation after the deadly invasion had already begun.
“If the system had been working at those hours, it is very likely that dramatic information would have arrived that would have changed the intelligence picture,” a former senior official told the outlet at the time.
Security concerns intensified further in June 2024 when a three-person IDF audit team posing as officers successfully infiltrated the same Unit 8200 base in Glilot, just north of Tel Aviv.
The team passed through the guard post unchallenged and roamed the facility for nearly three hours, accessing operational areas and extracting sensitive documents and digital files from secure computers, according to Ynet.
“If they had been hostile actors, the damage could have been catastrophic,” the report warned.
The two incidents — one by an enemy and one staged by IDF auditors — have raised alarms about both external and internal vulnerabilities at one of Israel’s most vital intelligence hubs.
https://worldisraelnews.com/hamas-tried-to-infiltrate-israels-elite-intelligence-unit-8200-via-cleaning-tender/?vwo_powered=1
