According to a variety of sources Hezbollah has developed a robust electronic warfare capability and successfully leveraged those skills to penetrate Israel?s communications security during the recent conflict in Lebanon .
In mid-July the Jerusalem Post reported that ?All Israeli computers within 15-20 kilometers of Hizbullah positions along the northern border, including those belonging to IDF bases and officers and containing highly sensitive data, are vulnerable to hacking via wireless networks (source).?
More recently, multiple media sources have reported that Hezbollah was able to both intercept the cell phone calls of Israeli military personnel as well as crack into sophisticated
frequency-hopping and encrypted Israeli military radio traffic based on the US designed Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System (source). A Hezbollah commander stated, ?We were able to monitor Israeli communications, and we used this information to adjust our planning (source).?
Technical Skill or Poor Operational Security?
For different reasons each of these reports must be treated with a healthy dose of skepticism. Quite simply, it is possible that Hezbollah may have achieved isolated successes in intercepting valuable communications or stealing sensitive data, but each of these successes would have likely been dependent on the Israelis practicing sloppy operational security. Hezbollah tacitly admitted as much when one if it?s commanders admitted that they were not able to reliably and consistently hack into Israeli military communications (source).
For example, it is widely known that wireless networks are notoriously easy to attack and even those networks with encryption can be quickly penetrated. As a result, it is unlikely that the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) allows its sensitive military networks do have wireless access points. Some of the IDF?s unclassified networks may be wireless enabled, but it is unclear how much operationally sensitive data is held on these networks. Therefore, data gleaned from wireless IDF networks was as much a result of poor IDF security practice as it was Hezbollah?s hacking skills.
Additionally, it is unlikely that Hezbollah was able to crack the Israeli military?s sophisticated encrypted and frequency-hopping radio communications. When used in its most secure configuration it is unlikely that Hezbollah would have been able to both track the IDFs radio traffic across a wide spectrum of frequencies as well as decrypt the aggregated traffic in an operationally useful timeframe. However, it is possible that individual Israeli soldiers did not properly secure its radio traffic and therefore allowed Hezbollah to either triangulate IDF locations or even eavesdrop on sensitive communications.
Finally, while it is easier to intercept cell phone calls than crack encrypted military-grade radio communications, it is still not a frivolous task. It is likely that Hezbollah, with the aid of a state sponsor such as Syria or Iran could have developed the capability to intercept and triangulate for location commercial cell phone traffic. However, Israeli military personnel are warned against discussing operational details on cell phones. Therefore, in order to obtain sensitive information Hezbollah would have had to rely on individual Israeli soldiers violating operational security on an inconsistent basis.
Final Thoughts
Hezbollah?s claims that it was able to monitor sophisticated Israeli communications must also be treated with a healthy degree of skepticism because it is unlikely that ?Hezbollah commanders? would willingly discuss the groups ability to monitor these sophisticated sources. Bragging about its ability to monitor Israeli communications methods will simply motivate the Israelis to upgrade its communication security and therefore frustrate Hezbollah?s ability to monitor future Israeli communications. Therefore, openly bragging about a comprehensive eavesdropping ability is not in Hezbollah?s interest. However, a psychological operations campaign that overstates its technical capability is in Hezbollah?s interest.
