NYT journalists repeatedly hacked by Israeli based NSO Group
New York Times journalist Ben Hubbard’s iphone was repeatedly hacked by Israeli company NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware tool over a three-year period between June 2018 to June 2021, resulting in infections twice in July 2020 and June 2021.
The University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab published their findings on Sunday said that “the attack took place while reporting on Saudi Arabia and writing a book on Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.”
Ben Hubbard who is covering news on Middle East shared his statement on Sunday “that a hacking attempt was first made on his phone in 2018, when he received a “suspicious” Arabic language text message inviting him to a protest outside the Saudi embassy in Washington, DC.”
NSO Group is believed to have leveraged at least three different iOS exploits — namely an iMessage zero-click exploit in December 2019, a KISMET exploit targeting iOS 13.5.1 and iOS 13.7 starting July 2020, and a “FORCEDENTRY” exploit aimed at iOS 14.x until 14.7.1 since February 2021.
Israeli companies have been consistently identified as key operatives in major cyber operations including both offensive and defensive cyber capabilities.
Israeli companies have been highlighted in various offensive operations few months back. Israeli Forcedenty was found against Saudi activist’s iPhone and researchers are of opinion that Forcedentry exploit used several names, including “setframed,” which was the process name used when dozens of journalists from Qatar-owned Al Jazeera were targeted with Pegasus spyware in July 2020.
For defensive operations too Israeli companies have consistently stayed in news. For instance, Russian military forces used Israeli tools for supporting Assad in Syria. Vietnam was Israel’s largest clients in the world in terms of weapons and military technology sales.
Qatar also hired Israeli based cybersecurity firm “Sdema Group” for providing security at the 2022 World Cup soccer championship in Qatar for a several dozen million-euro contract in past also.
Israeli surveillance cyber weapons are gaining much recognition across the world for assisting them in their covert surveillance especially, hacking journalist and human right activist. This repetitive incident indicates that Israeli technological support must be aligned with Saudi Arabia bloc and also served Qatar the opposite bloc in Middle East.
Israeli surveillance weapons are spreading their wings. Its technological off-shoots have been serving the technology to various countries through various direct and indirect channels. In future we can expect that Israel surveillance market was blooming and even developed countries will use their technology.
