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Warfare from vehicles and hacking into encrypted devices: the dark side of Israeli cyber

Israel is known as one of the largest technology exporters in the field, with graduates of intelligence units being considered a hot commodity around the world. However, some of the companies are developing tools with the potential to become a weapon, if they get into the wrong hands. Who is behind them and what are they really doing?

• Exit
• Hi-Tech
• Cyber
• NSO

Mikey Levy

The Israeli cyber industry has over the years provided quite a few headlines about exits. For example, just last February, the cyber company Foresight was sold in a huge deal of $ 1.9 billion. Shortly afterwards, Microsoft acquired the Israeli "Cyber ​​X" for about $ 150 million and Israeli cyber exits became routine.

Israel is known as one of the largest exporters of cyber technologies in the world, and certainly the largest in the world in terms of size. However, it is also on the “dark side” of cyber, as there are companies developing digital tools with the potential to become weapons used by the wrong hands, or without proper supervision. Some make headlines quite often, and some remain in the dark. What these companies have in common is that they define themselves as "defensive" cyber companies.

"The law does not allow offensive cyber to engage," clarified Dr. Harel Manshari, head of cyber at HIT, a former founder of the GSS cyber network. "There is a company that has unfortunately made headlines (NSO, ML), and it should be understood that this is a company like others in the world and it is not the only one of its kind. "This company, like its counterparts elsewhere in the world, including the Western world, is developing tools to give to law organizations (organizations like the Shin Bet and the like, ML), in other countries that are unable to develop on their own," says Manshari.

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"The Israeli cyber industry has a very good reputation in terms of capabilities, because in the end we claim that just as our air force is so good, so are our intelligence capabilities. One of the advantages in Israeli culture is the ability to develop and move things quickly. Even if I did not serve in the army with "The same person I'm interested in, so I'll get to know someone who did it and I can get in touch with the same person I want to reach pretty quickly," Manshari said.

"The vast knowledge in the cyber world is accumulated by Israelis through the army in units such as 8200, the cyber units of the GSS and the Mossad. The same knowledge is used as a weapon, and already today, quite a few soldiers discharged from intelligence units are moving to foreign countries to develop and teach the knowledge they have accumulated. "

"Among other things, we saw a Reuters investigation a few months ago that showed a group of young people, 8200 graduates, who studied and received tools in security systems - and the big money enticed them to go and work for a foreign company in the Gulf states," Manshari described. "This is a very serious mishap, it's just awful. You can make sure it doesn't happen by publicity. And these people need to be told what the act means. The weapons they are developing there, may eventually be directed at our forces. The government should intervene, and I I hope something has been done in the last few months. "

So who are these companies and what do they do?

Celebrity: Hacking capabilities for locked or encrypted physical devices

The company recently made headlines when it developed tools for internal investigations in organizations and law enforcement agencies. These allow data to be obtained from smartphones, computers and tablets, even when there is a password and the details are encrypted.

For example, in 2017, the smartphone of the San Bernardino terrorist who killed 14 people was seized. The FBI contacted Apple, but it refused to open the password-protected smartphone. Following the refusal of the technology giant, the Celebrity Company was called to the flag and the FBI paid a whopping $ 900,000 for the hacking of the device.

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Last week, Hong Kong activists issued a petition calling on celebrities and other companies to end cooperation with the Chinese government. The letter was sent to the Defense Export Control Division, where they called for a halt to Celebrity's exports. "As revealed by one of the symbols of the struggle for democracy and freedom in Hong Kong, Wong Joshua, in official documents filed in legal proceedings in April 2020, the police admitted to hacking into his and others' cell phones using a celebrity system and extracting the information contained within them," the activists wrote in a letter.

NSO: Able to hack into remote phones according to foreign publications

A few months ago, the NSO company was at the center of an affair, in which Facebook accused it of using a loophole in WhatsApp to hack into smartphones. The company is developing the "Pegasus" spyware that is able, via a malicious link, to take control of the smartphone remotely. While there are "hackers" who look for vulnerabilities in the system in order to shut them down, there are those who claim that the NSO is looking for vulnerabilities in order to take control of the system remotely.

The UN claimed earlier this year that the NSO may have something to do with the phone hack of billionaire Amazon CEO and CEO Jeff Bezos. The break-in occurred in 2018, during which Bezos received a suspicious WhatsApp message that was reportedly sent from the account of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman. The NSO of course denied the allegations that their loophole was used, saying that "the company is shocked and shocked by the publicity about the alleged hacking of Bezos' phone. If this story is true, it deserves an investigation by all parties providing such services to make sure their systems are not used in this case. ".

NSO's name is also linked to the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Hashukaji, who was murdered at his country's consulate in Istanbul. His colleague Omar Abdulaziz, claimed that the conversations between them were monitored by NSO's "Pegasus" program.

NSO stated that "the company operates in accordance with the defense export laws and under the supervision of all parties in the defense system. Each transaction is subject to state approval. In addition, the company operates an external and binding ethics committee that examines each transaction before it is made, "We will abuse our products and investigate any case where there is a suspicion of abuse. We will act in accordance with the conclusions of the investigation, including the cancellation of agreements."

Verint: Technology for listening analysis

The Israeli company Verint was founded in 1999 by Boaz Mish'oli. As early as 1983, Mashuli devised a new technology for the Intelligence Corps, which replaced the methods and tools with which they carried out wiretapping. The revolutionary system at the time, converted all analog voice information to digital, and made it possible to clear background noises, identify the speaker and the spoken language. Since then the technology of the lanes has been sold to many countries.

Even today, Verint develops security, analysis and business intelligence software for the defense market and commercial companies. The main products that can be found in the company's arsenal: information collection systems. Unlike other companies, Verint manages to maintain the image of a high-tech company for all intents and purposes, and to modestize the controversial activity.

WiSpear: Cyber ​​warrior from vehicles

Col. Tal Dalian, founded several cyber companies and managed to register an exit valued at about $ 21 million, somewhere in 2014. He founded WiSpear in recent years and deals with offensive cyber from vehicles. In November 2019, Delian was proud of the offensive vehicle that can listen to any Information traffic on all smartphones within a radius of about half a kilometer from the vehicle. Using the vehicle, information can be extracted from cellular networks and wireless Internet such as WhatsApp correspondence, Facebook, call log, etc.

Delian operates from Cyprus, and is therefore not subject to any law of Israel. The vehicle was confiscated by the Cypriot police, and Delian was summoned for questioning, and may be prosecuted for violating privacy laws.

Candiro: Engaged in hacking into computers and computer networks

The most intriguing company operating in Israel is "Candiro" and few details are known about it. Today the company operates under the official name "Grindooik Solutions Inc.", and according to industry estimates, it is the company's second-largest cyber offensive and employs more than one hundred employees. Its market capitalization is estimated at $ 90 million.

Shrouded in secrecy, but little is known and published Only two weeks ago, importer Universal Motors invested $ 9 million in the offensive cyber company. Only, and another partner in this company is an investment company from Malta.

Dark Matter: An Arab cyber company that employs 8200 people

Last year a Reuters investigation was published that Dark Matter provides offensive cyber services and works with UAE intelligence services. According to the investigation of Reuters, the company employs graduates of the IDF's intelligence units, and if the information is correct, this omission. 8200 graduates gaining knowledge is a real weapon and seems to be "duplicated", or at least copy the learning method out.

Company The cyber Dark Matter was established in 2015 and is based in Abu Dhabi.The company claims that they only deal with defensive cyber, but Reuters' investigation revealed that it is an offensive cyber company that also works against Western targets.Another base for the company is in Cyprus, where Israeli workers are returning. On weekends, and enjoy a huge salary that can reach hundreds of thousands of shekels.

The body that supervises companies: The Defense Export Control Division

According to Dr. Manshari, "In the State of Israel, there is a movement body and security assistance in the Ministry of Defense: AFI (Defense Export Control Division). So any optional customer who comes to an Israeli company and wants to purchase a product that is already defined as 'weapons' should go to the Control Division. On defense exports. Whether it is a missile or a navigation system or a cyber product, AFI is supposed to approve and it sometimes also turns to experts in the field and asks what will happen if for example a certain country receives the technology, and how it will affect it or is there a fear that it will pass To one of her allies who may be our enemies. What does such an event mean. What happens if there are elections tomorrow or, God forbid, a revolution? "