The whole of Israel’s hacker ecosystem “is devoted to the effort to gather any kind of information,” one analyst tells Forbes.
The whole of Israel’s hacker ecosystem “is devoted to the effort to gather any kind of information,” one analyst tells Forbes.
Since the Hamas attacks on October 7, Israel has called on its much-vaunted cybersecurity and surveillance industries to assist in the war on Hamas. Asides from reaching out to hacker reservists, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has also employed the services of often-controversial spyware companies to assist on various intelligence efforts. That includes Herzliya-based NSO Group, whose iPhone hacking software Pegasus has allegedly been used by governments to target activists and journalists — a claim the company has often denied.
One focus for cybersecurity experts has been to help hack into phones and computers of the missing and the dead, four individuals from Israel’s cyber and intelligence industries told Forbes. All asked to remain anonymous as they were not authorized to speak on the record.
Remotely breaking into and silently monitoring the smartphones and laptops of abductees could help the IDF learn more about the movements and activities of Hamas. Forbes previously reported that Hamas had used abductees’ phones to call relatives and friends to harass them.
One analyst who has worked for a number of Israel’s spyware companies confirmed to Forbes there was a concerted effort to not just access missing people’s electronics but also their social media accounts. “The entire ecosystem is devoted to the effort to gather any kind of information,” they said.
