Israel Charges Two Blind Brothers With Cybercrime

TEL AVIV - The Badir brothers are blind from birth and grew up in an Arab village bypassed by the computer revolution - not the typical hacker resume.

But yesterday, Munther and Muzhar Badir went on trial for what prosecutors say is Israel's most elaborate cyberscam, a crime that has raised questions about whether the security-minded nation is equipped to fight cybercrime, or worse - cyberterrorism.

The ease with which the two young men - who ran a computer consulting firm as teenagers and created software for the blind - allegedly broke into sensitive computer systems, including that of Armed Forces Radio, has stunned Israel, a high-tech powerhouse.

It took a special 10-member police task force 15 months to collect thousands of disks and documents and charge the Badirs, whose closed-door trial started yesterday.

The brothers have pleaded not guilty to 42 counts of fraud, bribery and blackmail. The indictment accuses them of breaking into computer systems to hijack phone lines and steal credit-card numbers they later used for illegal purchases.

In one daring scheme, Munther Badir, 22, used phone lines in a shack in Tel Aviv to create a setup that allowed residents of Palestinian-ruled Gaza City about 45 miles to the south to call abroad "at the expense of the Israeli armed forces," the charge sheet said.

Police had some help from Israel's most famous hacker, Ehud Tenenbaum, or The Analyzer, who has been charged with breaking into the Pentagon's computers.

The Badir brothers say they were targeted by Israeli authorities because they are Arab and gifted. But officials in the prosecutor's office deny the accusation.