Cyber Incident Victim: Pizza Hut Israel
Date:
Jul 2015
Location:
Israel
Summary
The official website of Pizza Hut Israel had its contact page compromised by Bangladeshi hacking group DangerPro (operating as CyBER-71), who defaced it with a political message directed at the Indian government. The attackers demanded an end to alleged border killings of Bangladeshi citizens, declaring a cyber war against India while mistakenly targeting an Israeli domain. The defacement was subsequently redirected to the company's Facebook page, disrupting normal website operations. This incident reflects a pattern of civilian infrastructure being impacted by geopolitical cyber campaigns unrelated to the targeted organization.
| CIA Posture | Motives | Tactics, Techniques & Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| Available to members | 1 motive | 1 technique |
| Threat Actor | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|
| 1 actor | Available to members | Available to members |
Description
On July 7, 2015, the contact page of Pizza Hut Israel’s official website (contact.pizzahut.co.il) was compromised by a Bangladeshi hacking group identifying themselves as DangerPro or CyBER-71. The attackers replaced the page’s content with a defacement message directed at the Indian government, protesting alleged border killings of Bangladeshi citizens. The message explicitly declared a cyber war against India, demanding an immediate halt to these actions and threatening further attacks on Indian cyberspace. Evidence of the hack, including a mirror of the defaced page, was documented on Zone-H under ID 24553839. The defacement included the text: "Hello India! We are CyBER-71 from Bangladesh. At last we declare a war against your Indian Government. We will destroy your CyberSpace until you move from your execrable work. Stop your border killing, stop killing innocent people." The article speculated that the hackers might have mistakenly targeted the Israeli (.il) domain instead of India’s (.in) domain. The attack temporarily disrupted access to Pizza Hut Israel’s contact page, which was redirected to the company’s official Facebook page for Israel at the time of the article’s publication.
The incident impacted Pizza Hut Israel’s online presence, forcing a temporary reliance on social media for customer contact. No data breaches or financial losses were mentioned in the source material. Pizza Hut’s response involved redirecting the compromised page to mitigate visitor exposure to the defacement. Historical context indicated prior unrelated breaches affecting Pizza Hut franchises in Brazil, Spain, and Malta, though no technical similarities or attacker connections were cited. The article emphasized that private businesses often suffer collateral damage during geopolitical cyber conflicts. The defacement remained publicly accessible until the redirect was implemented, with no further details provided about forensic investigations, attacker attribution beyond the group’s name, or long-term remediation steps by Pizza Hut Israel.