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A glimpse into the world of Gaza’s cyber pirates

Home to more than 2,000 hackers, the Gaza Strip is no longer the isolated place it used to be, with rising cyberattacks driven by national and personal motives.
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RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Operating from a Rafah suburb south of the Gaza Strip, a young man under the pseudonym Salem Mohammed has been involved in cyber piracy with his local group known as “Hackers Special Elite” for more than eight years.

In an interview with Al-Monitor, Salem, 24, said, “I’ve been a hacker since 2008, conducting several infiltrations. In 2014, I broke into a Brazilian airport’s landline and made a profit of 13,000 euros [$14,260].”

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