Israeli cyber technology finds Moroccon channels to serve Middle Eastern countries
Cyber technology plays a very important role for attacking and countering apparent anti-national tendencies. Middle East countries are becoming the hub for nurturing such technologies. It has given an edge to countries for conducting cyber operation on a large scale anonymously.
Since, Israel is one of the key developers of this technology, its technological off-shoots has been serving the technology to various countries through various direct and indirect channels. One such way has been of establishing ties and company offices in various allied countries.
Israeli companies have identified cyber warfare as an area of huge potential, both for offensive and defensive cyber solutions. Israel’s NSO Group have been linked to abusive use of spyware “Pegasus” used to target civil society, including Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
It is obvious that Israel does not share favourable political relations with many Middle Eastern nations. Going by the history, there is a possibility that Israel might take help from some indirect channels like Morocco to provide cyber assistance to such countries for instance Qatar.
Recently, Morocco and Israel signed the first bilateral cooperation agreement in the field of cybersecurity. The agreement was signed by Yigal Unna, the Director General of Israel’s National Cyber Directorate and the head of Morocco’s General Directorate of Information Systems Security El Mostafa Rabii, and the Moroccan Defence Minister Abdellatif Loudiyi.
Last year, Morocco offered security assistance to Qatar for successful 2022 world cup. In 2018, Moroccan and Qatari officials met in Rabat and expressed their determination to forge stronger bilateral ties, particularly in trade, cyber security etc.
Recent news states that cybersecurity firm Lookout found traces left behind by Israeli company NSO’s software, which was allegedly used by Morocco to surveil its interests in France. Meanwhile, French news outlet Mediapart, whose reporters were targeted, lodged a criminal complaint with Paris prosecutors, blaming Morocco for the alleged spying.
However, Moroccan government has denied wrongdoing and has threatened legal action over the “unfounded” spyware allegations.
Israeli offshoots networks are spread worldwide even Israel seems not to have track of it. Hence many developing countries are able to use Israeli cyber technologies irrespective of their political leanings.
