Omer Benjakob Profile picture
Feb 15, 2023 13 tweets 11 min read Read on X
SCOOP: We went undercover & discovered a secret disinformation-for-hire group called Team Jorge selling election interference, hack-and-leak & influence as a service. They claim to have meddled in 33 elections THREAD #TeamJorge @FredMetzo @GurMegiddo haaretz.com/israel-news/se…
tldr; Team Jorge are a 1-stop-shop of influence & psyops

Their business model: disinformation-as-a-service, or DaaS.

Their software: AIMS, an advanced system for creating and deploying fake accounts without detection

#TeamJorge @FredMetzo @GurMegiddo
haaretz.com/israel-news/se…
tldr; Over 6 secretly recorded meetings, they pitched their DaaS tech, boasted about past activities. For 6+ months 100+ reporters investigated their claims @Damien_Leloup @flornrnd @Kzalan @HoffHeiner @christo_buschek @romanlehberger @m_hoppenstedt @skirchy to name a few
The long story: @FbdnStories follows up on the work of journalists that are threatened or killed. They decided to bring together reporters from across the world to investigate the shady disinformation-for-hire industry
forbiddenstories.org/story-killers/…
After meeting in Paris, @GurMegiddo had an idea: We should pose as potential clients & try to get a meeting w these firms. Get them to pitch themselves @FredMetzo #teamjorge
The project, if anyone was crazy enough to take it on: Postpone an election in an African country without any reason.

And the disinfo industry said: HOLD MY BEER

#TeamJorge @FredMetzo @GurMegiddo
Sources linked us to middlemen, mediators put us in touch with door openers. None seem bothered by the fact we wanted to have a democratic election called of for no reason
#TeamJorge @FredMetzo @GurMegiddo
.@FredMetzo played a mild-mannered French consultant

I played the neurotic American

@GurMegiddo the ex-Israeli

More calls were made. After one key introduction, we were told to call Jorge.
Jorge and his team - aka #TeamJorge - we would soon learn have a lot of experience in election interference - and no lack of ideas @FredMetzo @GurMegiddo Image
Over the course of Zoom meetings, Team Jorge pitched their bundle of services. First, you collect “active intelligence on your targets” - this includes hacking into email and messaging accounts. These can later be leaked. #TeamJorge @FredMetzo @GurMegiddo Image
Some were playing out in front of our very eyes. We were shown the live Telegram account of a senior Kenyan official, now a serving minister. Jorge showed us how he could send messages from his target’s phone.

#TeamJorge @FredMetzo @GurMegiddo
haaretz.com/israel-news/se… Image
This is how disinfo tech looks and works from the inside
We got an inside look at the AIMS system >> thread continues

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More from @omerbenj

Sep 14, 2023
🚨SCOOP: My new @Haaretzcom investigation reveals new Israeli cyber companies developed technology that exploits the heart of the online economy - ads - not just for mass surveillance, but also to hack phones 👇

haaretz.com/israel-news/20…
🚨This is surveillance capitalism at its finest! The world of "digital arms" has evolved, moving into the realm of ad-based intelligence (AdInt). This is how this next-gen digital weapon leaked into the private cyber arms sector >>

haaretz.com/israel-news/20…
🏁There's a digital arms race taking place over the last 5 years to use ads not just for geolocation - but also as a cyber weapon >>

haaretz.com/israel-news/20…
Read 22 tweets
May 22, 2023
SCOOP with @DrWhax

- Israel killed Morocco's access to Pegasus - but also failed to okay its deal with QuaDream

- Leaked code reveals their spyware and show it may have abused WhatsApp

- Sources: Firm also developed “terrifying” new spyware

haaretz.com/israel-news/se…
Pieces of QuaDream’s code, which was leaked by an employee, likely by mistake, revealed Reign, but also Blue Spear – a previously unknown program that seems to serve as the web interface through which the targeted devices are likley infected / @DrWhax

haaretz.com/israel-news/se… Image
Full technical analysis of QuaDream's leaked code can be found here by @DrWhax haaretz.com/israel-news/se…
Read 4 tweets
Feb 15, 2023
At the center of their service is AIMS. A never-before-seen software for creating not bots - but avatars. Complex digital personas that seem real and operate across platforms. AIMS has almost 40k
haaretz.com/israel-news/se…

#TeamJorge @FredMetzo @GurMegiddo
The fake accounts are grouped and AIMS' avatar management dashboard boasts: “African, Arabian, Armenian, Brazilian, Canada, European (mix), Philippines, Russia, Senegal, South America, Ukraine, USA and Zimbabwe.”
#TeamJorge @FredMetzo @GurMegiddo

haaretz.com/israel-news/se…
AIMS also allows the creation of new accounts - they automatic creation of new avatars, with unique names, pics (stolen from real people), an email and even a phone number

#TeamJorge @FredMetzo @GurMegiddo

haaretz.com/israel-news/se…
Read 23 tweets
Dec 23, 2022
SCOOP Meet Toka, an Israeli camera hacking firm set up by former PM Ehud Barak and the IDF’s ex-cyber chief. It sells only to intel bodies and law enforcement and allows them to “access” and “alter” camera feeds
haaretz.com/israel-news/se…
Toka is under Israeli ministry of defense oversight - its clients are mostly US and it’s allies in the west, but also includes Israel and likely Singapore Revealed: The Israeli Firm Selling ‘Dystopian’ Hacking Capabilities - National Security & Cyber
haaretz.com/israel-news/se…
According to a company pitch deck obtained by @Haaretz @haaretzcom, Toka offers “previously out-of-reach capabilities” that “transform untapped IoT sensors into intelligence sources,” and can be used “for intelligence and operational needs.”

haaretz.com/israel-news/se…
Read 4 tweets
Nov 30, 2022
Sometimes all it takes is one selfie on a private jet by a single employee to launch a cross-border investigation into the dark side of the digital arms market @avischarf @LHreports @cr0ft0n @daniel_howden @e_triantafillou @telloglou >> haaretz.com/israel-news/se…
Together w Lighthouse Reports & Inside Story we analysed/cross-referenced hundreds of flight records, linking the plane to key locations, and combed dozens of passenger lists, corporate filings, employment records & secret/open data sources
haaretz.com/israel-news/se…
We tracked the plane to Dubai, Abu Dhabi & Riyadh. Confidential docs show the company was pushing hard for deals in Africa, and had engaged a network of known arms dealers to pitch its products to Sudan, Mozambique, Angola, Kenya Equatorial Guinea. haaretz.com/israel-news/se…
Read 8 tweets
Aug 22, 2022
A short thread on Pegasus, the Israeli occupation and how we define terror in wake of this AMAZING Guardian scoop about the CIA calling BS on Israel's claim that Palestinian rights orgs are terror groups- a claim based on intel collected by hacking phones
theguardian.com/world/2022/aug…
Last October, Israel's then defense minister blacklisted six Palestinian orgs. The move caused an outcry among rights groups across the world. But Israel was adamant these were NOT rights groups but terror groups haaretz.com/israel-news/20…
"The groups are controlled by the senior leadership of the PFLP and employ many members of the group in jobs in both management and on the ground – including activists who were involved in terrorism," Israel said at the time.

haaretz.com/israel-news/20…
Read 12 tweets

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