Israeli cyberespionage firm meddled in 33 elections worldwide: Reports
The team was exposed following an investigation by a consortium of journalists who work for 30 news outlets, including Le Monde, Der Spiegel, and El País, and is part of a broader investigation into the disinformation industry coordinated with French NGO Forbidden Stories.
Hanan told the journalists that his hacking and disinformation services are offered to a broad list of clients, including intelligence agencies, political figures, and campaigns, in addition to private corporations that want to manipulate the public.
Hanan noted that he has been contracted to operate on behalf of clients in Africa, South and Central America, the US, and Europe.
According to Hanan, he can plant a small device, in cooperation with a local cell provider [in the targeted country] that enables him to reroute phone messages that are sent by communication companies such as Google and Telegram to authenticate users [authentication code] to his computer, which he then uses the "Hijacked" text message to either hack into accounts, or use phone numbers of unsuspecting victims to create fake online accounts.
An army of 'Humanized' cyborgs
One of the services offered by the Israeli team is a software called Advanced Impact Media Solutions (Aims), which is able to create and control a large virtual army of thousands of fake media accounts on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Telegram, Instagram, and Facebook.
According to the report, in order to give credibility and authenticity to some of the accounts, Hanan would provide them with Amazon accounts connected to credit cards, bitcoin wallets, and even Airbnb accounts.
AIMS does not use AI to generate the account's photos as social media sites like Facebook and Twitter could easily spot them, Hanan said.
However, the software gives its avatars real pictures belonging to real people - without their knowledge.
Targeted 33 presidential elections worldwide
At the beginning of the meeting, in an attempt to impress the potential clients [undercover journalists], Hanan that, “We are now involved in one election in Africa … We have a team in Greece and a team in [the] Emirates … You follow the leads. [We have completed] 33 presidential-level campaigns, 27 of which were successful.” Later, he revealed that he was also working on two “major projects” in the United States but claimed he does not engage directly in US politics.
Worked against Chavez in 2012
During an online meeting with the Israeli team, it was revealed to the undercover journalists that Hanan participated in a defamation campaign against former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez during the 2012 elections.
According to the report, the Israeli team attained documents from Chavez's close circle, added false information to them, and then leaked them. The documents then were later used by ABC News Network.
Despite Hanan's attempts, Chavez won the elections that year.
China-Russia gate in Indonesia
In one of his demonstrations, Hanan claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on Indonesia's elections committee (KPU) back in 2019, where the Israeli team planned the offensive, upon their client's request, to appear as if it was launched from China in order to stain one of the nominees as being an affiliate to Beijing.
We launched the attack, he said, “and we showed that all the traffic – everything came from China.”
Media outlets reported later in March 2019 that a “Chinese-Russian” offensive targeted the computer network system of Indonesia's elections committee.
Planting reports on French TV
Another service Hanan offered to his clients was planting false reports in French Media.
He showed the undercover reporters a clip of a report that had been published on French media outlet BFMTV a few days earlier [from the time of the meeting] and claimed that his team planted that news.
In the report, French television presenter Rachid M’Barki said that the US sanctions on Russian businessmen would result in the unemployment of tens of thousands working at the shipyards that handle the businessmen's yachts in Monaco.
After the journalists contacted the French media outlet to verify the report, the tv's management launched an internal investigation into the matter and later suspended the presenter after the claim appeared to be true.
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