Israel is the core contributor to major cyber offensive operations around the globe
Another investigation reveals that Israel is the becoming the concentration of companies and actors providing cyber warfare services. Israel always acts as an epicenter for surveillance and cyber intelligence firm across the world.
Israel is seen as one of the Globe’s leading Cyber players in both offensive and defensive cyber capabilities, along with other nations like China and Russia. There have been multiple attacks that were attributed to US, Turkey and other such countries but there actors also may have used Israeli products or services to execute any such operations.
Recently,Tal Hanan, a former Israeli special forces operative running the firm under the pseudonym “Jorge,” specializing in ‘building narrative’ and then propagating with various services, including bot networks, false information, and hacking of opponents.
The firm uses Advanced Impact Media Solutions (AIMS) software to create fake digital avatars and disseminate automated content. The AIMS software used to spread stories using these fake avatars on online platform. India is also in the list of affected countries.
One such example of disinformation was seen when Rachid M’Barki, a popular journalist and presenter at one of the famous France’s most watched news channel, BFM TV, was suspended due to being exposed to run disinformation for his repeated coverage of Israeli news like that of luxury yachts in Monaco, allegations of corruption in Qatar which were apparently planted under the context of ‘news for hire’.
These reports were often also aired without the knowledge and approval of the BFM’s editorial department. Interestingly, these reports were often aired at the early hours of the morning and as a result such reports would mostly have gone unobserved. But soon they started gaining traction when these reports fall into the radar of a highly shadowy organisation called Team Jorge and they used it as a tool of disinformation.
This investigation was carried over 6 month between July to Dec 2022 by a consortium of journalists from 30 media organisations including Haaretz, Le Monde and Der Spiegel.
This is not the first time an Israeli actor has been identified leading cyber warfare. Israeli cyber companies have been offering their services beyond their geographical loyalties to money masters.
For instance, NSO Group, a spyware merchant which was in news for selling its tools to government entities who’s phone-targeting, amped-up stalkerware has been linked to misuse by human rights violators around the world.
Candiru is another Israeli startup featuring former government operatives known for selling spyware exclusively to governments. Their spyware can potentially infect iPhones, Androids, Macs, PCs, and cloud accounts. There is high possibility of Qatar being a major beneficiary of the services it offered as it was one of the stakeholder in Candiru.
Another spyware company formed by former Israeli intelligence agencies Cytrox. This Company is at the center of a domestic surveillance debacle in Greece was selling spyware technologies to government.
Israel has become an epicenter for surveillance and hacking tools that have been developed by former government employees who was now willing to sell these services to various governments through shell companies/actors beyond their national loyalties.
