BICOM

A leading US newspaper has claimed that sensitive information the US President shared with Russian officials in May came from an Israeli hack of an Islamic State (ISIS) bombmaking cell based in Syria.

The intelligence, according to Monday’s New York Times report, revealed that about six months ago, top Israeli “cyberoperators” had penetrated a terror cell making explosives that were to be disguised as laptop batteries and would not be discovered by airport X-ray scanners.

The Israeli-sourced intelligence was used to help institute a ban on carrying laptops on incoming flights from number of predominantly Muslim countries to the US and the UK in March.

In an Oval Office meeting on 10 May US President Donald Trump shared the information with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian Ambassador to Washington Sergey Kislyak.

There has been speculation since as to what classified information was leaked. ABC had initially reported that the intelligence leak may have endangered the life of an Israeli agent infiltrated within ISIS.

Writing in Yediot Ahronot, Alex Fishman claims that if the New York Times report is accurate it would constitute “an across-the-board collapse of intelligence capability that was acquired with great labour and at great risk”.

Fishman added that countries which want to learn about Israeli capabilities will dig through ISIS’‎s computers to catch the virus-Trojan horse-worm. The moment a cyber “‎tool” ‎is discovered, there is a good chance that the weak point will also be discovered.

Following the intelligence leak, reports had suggested that Israeli intelligence officials were re-evaluating what information to share with their American counterparts.

However, speaking on Army Radio this morning, Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said that relations between Israeli and American intelligence agencies have never been better.