Eitan Arusy, an Israeli private investigator with the UAE is alleged for spreading misinformation about hacking by Qatar
One of the most fiercely fought legal battles in cyber warfare, the Azima-Dechert case, is getting intense with the emergence of new facts.
An American aviation tycoon Farhad Azima sued Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA), one of the sovereign wealth fund of UAE, Dechert LLP, David Neil Gerrard, Nicholas Del Rosso, Eitan Arusy, Amit Forlit, Amir Hadjani, Andrew Frank, Karv Communications, Insight Analysis and Reserach LLC, SDC Gadot LLC and Vital Management Services ,INC. under Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
We had earlier published a story about the case titled, “Azima-Dechert case conspiracy deepens as new facts emerge” on 20/01/2023. We highlighted new facts presented in the lawsuit about a key actor, Eitan Arusy.
Post-publication of the story we received an anonymous tip on the case,focusing on the critical role played by Eitan Arusy,most likely from Azims’s camp, which seems to have logical substance.
As per the tip, Arusy is alleged to be the mastermind who created and propagated a fake document alleging Qatar of hacking to play his defence subtly.
The key purpose of the document was to divert the blame primarily on his previous ally, Aditya Jain, in which others too became a victim of collateral damage.
Arusy is also alleged to have shared this file with top journalists having the potential of publishing it. He was successful, Journalists from Intelligence online and Sunday times actually trussed the information provided about Qatar’s hacking operations and published an article on it.
It did backfire, as it was later proven to be a misinformation campaign running against Qatar for which clarifications were provided by Intelligence online and others. Reportedly, Intelligence Online and Sunday Times are also facing lawsuits for publishing such unverified information. They are pushed legally to retract the articles.
As per the tip, Reuters too was targeted for publishing this information. But, the wire agency acted smartly by deciding not to publish this article due to unreliable and unverified source of information.
Qatar too, has a history of hacking its adversaries with its designated cyber partners, like Italian firm Hacking Team,Turkish Intelligence and U.S.- based consulting firm Global Risk advisors (GRA). Qatar’s outsourcing operations came first in the limelight when US-based Elliot Broidy accused the Emir’s brother Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani for hiring GRA to extract information from Broidy’s personal emails.
Such a background gave an opportunity to Arusy to build a case of diversion which had the potential to mislead the case completely.
