Credit card hacker denies Israeli blogger unmasked him

Hacker responds to reports that Amir Fedida uncovered his identity, dismissing them as "another Israeli failure"; blogger claims hacker made mistakes enabling him to trace him; file spread containing Trojan horse.

By JPOST.COM STAFF, YAAKOV LAPPIN
keyboard computer Internet cyber warfare 311 (photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
keyboard computer Internet cyber warfare 311
(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
The hacker who published tens of thousands of Israeli credit card numbers denied reports that an Israeli blogger unmasked his identity on Friday.
Channel 10 and other media reports said Amir Fedida spent eight hours researching the hacker’s identity.
RELATED:Hackers post 1000s of Israeli credit card numbersFedida said the hacker was Omar Habib, a 19-year-old man living in Mexico with origins in the UAE. The hacker goes by the online name of “OxOmar.”
But OxOmar later denied any connections to Habib, describing attempts to link the two as false. OxOmar, who was originally believed to be Saudi, dared Mossad to track him down, boasting it would be impossible to find him.
Fedida said his research found the hacker is not Saudi as widely reported, and the hacker committed several errors that allowed others to track him down.
The biggest mistake was communicating with Israeli media by e-mail, Fedida said.
The hacker is active in pro- Palestinian Internet forums, where he posts anti-Israel messages, Fedida added.
The credit card list published on Friday contains no new information, but can damage computers that run it, Leumi Bank, the CAL credit card company, and Isracard warned. They instructed their customers to refrain from downloading the file.
OxOmar reportedly responded to reports of another file disseminated on Friday that contained Trojan horse malware, and denied responsibility for it.
On Thursday, OxOmar released almost 11,000 new Israeli credit card numbers and personal contact details, following the publication of around 15,000 numbers earlier this week.
Credit card companies were examining the latest list and were prepared to cancel any affected cards for phone or Internet use, as well as issue new cards.
OxOmar threatened to release many more credit card numbers, and claimed to also be in possession of “data I have downloaded from Israeli military contractor companies.” The message, posted on the “uncensored text hosting” website Pastebin, contained numerous anti-Israel and anti- Semitic references. The hacker repeatedly referred to the “Zionist lobby” and the “Jewish lobby” throughout the post.