Saudi banks tighten security following Israeli threats

Banks across Saudi Arabia started implementing a series of tight security measures in anticipation of an Israeli retaliatory action following the exposure of credit card details of thousands of Israeli citizens at the hands of a Saudi hacker. With Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon likening the hacking to a terrorist operation and vowing that no Saudi agency will be immune from the Jewish state’s revenge, the security systems departments in several Saudi banks embarked on an extensive campaign on Saturday to increase security on their transactions and guarantee wider monitoring of their websites, sources told Al Arabiya. The campaign also includes detection of any suspicious transactions or frequent attempts at accessing any of the banks’ websites. In an email he sent to the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot, the hacker who goes with the alias OxOmar denied earlier reports that he is from the United Arab Emirates and lives in Mexico. The hacker said that his real name is Omar and that he is Saudi and lives in the capital Riyadh. He added that his picture is on his account on the social networking website Facebook. Omar, who said his main aim is to harm Israel financially and socially in response to its occupation of Palestine, argued that it is impossible for anyone to find him no matter how many emails he sends or through Facebook because he is a skilled hacker and not a beginner. The hacker first published a list that included the details of 18,000 Israeli credit cards then followed it by another list with an additional 11,000 credit cards. The details included the full names, addresses, and phone numbers of cards’ holders and the numbers of their credit cards. Omar vowed to disclose the details of another 80,000 cards in response to official Israeli allegations that only 14,000 cards have been hacked so far.