How does the Israeli regime spy through social networks?
In a report on Monday, a Hebrew newspaper revealed that Israeli security companies violate people’s privacy by creating thousands of fake accounts and various malware and sell people’s information to their customers all over the world.
According to the Haaretz report, the Israeli regime continues to sell spying tools to its armies, clients, and private institutions, and uses these spying tools to collect confidential information on journalists and activists around the world, thus achieving its goal.
Omar Ben Yaqoob and Phineas Ruckert, the authors of this report, write that the Osint System (OSINT) belongs to the Israeli regime’s cyber company, which is introduced for the first time in this report. The authors of the said report stated that this system has a lot of information about us and journalists.
At the beginning of this report, the authors reveal a “big information leak” and publish it. This report is part of global research in that Haaretz newspaper participated. This research mentions three Israeli companies that provided advanced systems in the field of digital tracking and espionage for the Colombian army.
Creating thousands of fake accounts
The leaked documents reveal a kind of social media espionage industry and prove how receiving a fake friend offer can expose you and your friends.
The technology brought to the market by Israeli companies is part of what is called “information from unofficial sources”. It is a broad concept in the world of military intelligence, but its use has become a common noun in a certain market; Because other ways of spying have changed.
According to this report, the discussion here is not about the disclosed sources of information in social networks, but rather about all the means of collecting information in closed social networks such as “Facebook” and “Instagram” and other social networks that try to Protect people’s privacy.
“Haaretz” newspaper’s report of “Forbidden Story” reveals a type of espionage method using thousands of fake accounts on the networks. But contrary to what is common, these accounts are not spreading false news or misleading information, but these fake accounts, which were introduced for the first time in this report, is used by mercenaries and unknown users to collect information.
The report goes on to say that spy company provides their services to militaries, spy agencies around the world, and organizations that have already exploited this technology.
This report mentions Colombia, where two years ago there was a big scandal in this country when it became clear that the Colombian army, with the help of similar tools, made dozens of journalists into intelligence figures.
The newspaper wrote: “It all started with a friend request sent out of curiosity. At first, the account appeared to be genuine and there was nothing suspicious, and he appeared to be an Israeli, perhaps a friend of a friend.” But in fact, he is an unknown malware that is gathering information.
Osinte expert and Atlantic Council Institute researcher Danny Citrinovich warned social media users in this regard and said: “People should stop talking to bots (fake accounts) and know that these fake accounts are a real threat.”
A month ago, the “Meta” company (the owner of Instagram and Facebook) announced that it filed a complaint against the Israeli company “Voyager Labs”. Because he created tens of thousands of fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram, to collect the information of 600,000 users without knowing them, his clients around the world. According to Meta, this is a clear violation of the terms of the use of social networks.
Haaretz newspaper in this report examines the performance of the malware of the “S2T” company and writes that this Israeli malware enters the program automatically and secretly turns on the person’s cell phone camera and spies according to the predetermined program. This company has systems that can identify a person’s exact geographical location through the above malware.
At the end of its report, Haaretz wrote that the obtained documents show that Bangladesh’s military intelligence service purchased various systems from a subsidiary of S2T in 2021-2022. The authors of the report emphasized that “Uri Sassoon And S2T refused to answer them in this regard.
