ames – Techdirt (original) (raw)

Investigation Shows Israeli Malware Firms Pitching Spyware To Embargoed Countries, Serial Human Rights Abusers

from the never-even-bothering-to-ask,-are-we-the-baddies? dept

As we’re all painfully aware by now, former Israeli intelligence analysts are capable of producing private sector malware companies faster than the CIA can produce successful coups.

While both are capable of handing over inordinate amounts of power to truly terrible people, only the Israeli companies have been formally asked by the US federal government to knock it the fuck off.

The sanctions handed down by the US Commerce Department were the direct results of months of negative press detailing the endless abuse of Israel-based NSO Group’s malware by the abusive governments it chose to sell to, including several countries listed in the world yearbook as Most Likely To Want Israel Dead.

NSO and Cytrox — companies that both have extensive sordid histories — were sanctioned. NSO, despite being best buddies with the Israeli government, found itself being investigated by the same government that had aided and abetted its malware sales to international death merchants, resulting in the extremely belated trimming of “Acceptable Customers” list.

The negative press has failed to subside. But not all of it is NSO-focused. Plenty of other Israeli companies founded by ex-Israeli intelligence analysts have similarly chosen to sell spyware to the worst governments on earth, resulting in the sort of worldwide press that’s normally the result of press junkets by confirmed misanthropes.

Every country has its own blacklists. The UN maintains its own. Several other not-specifically blacklisted countries are just considered bad to do business with. But, for Israeli malware merchants, nothing was off limits, even when some of it actually (in the legal sense) was.

This investigative report published by Israeli news outlet Haaretz provides more details on Israeli spyware firms and the questionable governments they chose to do business with. Most of this was facilitated by a third party located outside of Israel, providing plausible deniability to the Israeli malware firms it represented. Deniability, however implausible, was definitely needed, considering the deals being brokered by this third party.

A global investigation published Thursday into Intellexa, an alliance of digital arms and surveillance firms owned by Israelis but operating from outside of Israel, reveals how the company sold its spyware to Egypt, where it was used against critics of the regime. Intellexa also pitched its capabilities to Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Cameroon, Mauritius, Sierra Leone and others, per the investigation.

The front group was headed by ex-Israelis, but located conveniently offshore in locations that are often home to entities that wish to evade the legalities of doing business in their own countries. Intellexa, most recently registered in Greece, also calls Ireland and North Macedonia “home.”

From these home bases, Israeli-created malware could be pitched to countries the Israeli government refuses to (officially) do business with.

According to the investigation, in 2021 a sales pitch was made to the regime of Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi, which controls eastern Libya. The regime is under an international arms embargo but the offer – bearing the logos of Intellexa and AMES – included cell phone spyware. A deal was ultimately signed for other eavesdropping and cellular interception technology, however, getting the tech to the sanctioned regime was a problem.

“We have a request from a super bad country,” the French CEO told the company’s legal advisor in a May 2021 phone call. “I wanted to know if it is completely prohibited, or what our options are.” The legal counsel was unequivocal: “Forget about it… You know about the arms embargo, about the EU effort against Libya. They are very strict.”

This deal, headed up by the French CEO of Dubai-based Advanced Middle East Systems (AMES), ultimately fell through. A similar pitch was made to the government of Egypt in 2019. That deal — which followed the Arab Spring uprising in that country — apparently went through. Subsequent investigations of spyware-infested phones linked the infections to Israeli-produced spyware deployed by the Egyptian government against exiled politicians and opposition leaders.

This partnership with an autocratic government — one apparently aided by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s work for Intellexa — was a success, one celebrated by executives thrilled to have made the world just a little bit worse.

At the end of 2020 a contract was signed. The French CEO reported this in the Nexa-Intellexa WhatsApp group – adding three champagne bottle emojis. “Amazing,” Intellexa’s VP of Sales replied, with Dilian adding: “Great!!! Happy New Year.”

If there’s any upshot — at least for NSO Group — it’s that NSO is not the actual worst of the worst when it comes to Israeli spyware sellers. That title belongs to those who have flown further under the radar, thanks in large part for their use of foreign-based fronts for international sales.

Unlike Pegasus spyware maker NSO, which is regulated by the Israeli Defense Ministry and sold its wares to Saudi Arabia with Israel’s blessing, Intellexa has long operated outside of Israel and away from Israeli oversight.

The only upside here is that these companies have yet to produce phone malware as powerful as NSO’s flagship product, the zero-click Pegasus exploit. But even their off-brand knock-offs are capable of compromising phones, even if they might require a bit more direct interaction with their targets. But there’s no real good news to report. This latest set of revelations confirms what’s always been feared: that “good guys” with malware are more than willing to sell their products to the “bad guys” of the world.

Filed Under: human rights, israel, malware, surveillance
Companies: ames, cytrox, intellexa, nso group