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Iranian hackers claim to have breached Dimona nuclear facility

The cyber criminals claim to have stolen thousands of documents from the nuclear site.

Dimona
The nuclear reactor in Dimona, southern Israel. Aug. 13, 2016. Photo by Moshe Shai/Flash90.

Israeli experts are currently inspecting the authenticity of documents leaked by an Iranian hacker group which claims to have breached the Dimona nuclear facility in the Negev desert, Channel 12 reported on Thursday.

The hackers claim to have stolen thousands of PDF documents, including invoices, email correspondence, Excel tables, Word documents and PowerPoint presentations, according to an initial report, details of which are still under Israeli government censorship.

The hackers’ modus operandi fits with previous Iranian cyberattacks, Israel’s CheckPoint Software told Channel 12, in which an intimidating video is released announcing a successful hack and with the goal of sowing fear.

The hackers say that Israel needs to evacuate Dimona and Yeruham, a town less than 10 miles from Dimona, as they have “their hand on the switch,” according to Channel 12.

However, cyber security experts told the channel these claims are an exaggeration and that so far it appears the hackers only succeeded in stealing unclassified documents, if that.

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