An Israeli hacker has decided to fight fire with fire.

After the bank account details of thousands of Israelis were leaked online by someone claiming to be a Saudi hacker, the Israeli decided to disclose information about hundreds of Saudis, Egyptians and Syrians. The information included bank details but also email addresses and telephone numbers.

The cyber warrior, who according to Ynet is an IDF soldier specialisiing in intelligence, said he felt that Israel had initially reacted too feebly, and needed to have the confidence to start a "hacking war".

He apologised for the impact on "innocent" victims of the cyber war, but said that there needed to be a deterrent to stop Arab hackers attacking Israel.