Cyber Directorate Says Circulating WhatsApp Warning Is False

Israel’s National Cyber Directorate warned on November 9 that a false message circulating on WhatsApp could cause unnecessary alarm. The message claimed that Reshet Bet radio had announced that people receiving a text message asking them to update the Home Front Command app should not click its link, because it was an Iranian cyberattack. The directorate urged recipients to check information through its official channels and those of the Home Front Command. “This is not an official alert,” the directorate said. It asked anyone who had already forwarded the message to send its clarification to the same group, and stressed that repeated forwarding does not make information reliable. The advisory also said application updates should come from official application stores rather than links received in messages. It directed reports of impersonation messages and suspicious links to its 119 reporting number. The warning follows the directorate’s November 4 announcement of a national cyber portal offering free services for individuals, businesses and organizations. In that statement, it said phishing attacks had increased by about 145% over the preceding year and that it had received more than 26,000 reports of suspected cyberattacks since the start of 2026. The portal’s tools include Click Check, which evaluates suspicious links without requiring users to open them, a phishing-identification game and a protection-level assessment. The directorate also listed cyber alerts among the services available, along with security checks, professional tools and targeted alerts for businesses and organizations.