Israeli Cyber-Mercenary Company, Candiru, Exposed as New Global Rights Threat

[yankeedoodle]

Israeli Cyber-Mercenary Company, Candiru, Exposed as New Global Rights Threat

Read the article here to see the graphics and connect to the links: https://www.richardsilverstein.com/2021/07/16/israeli-cyber-mercenary-company-candiru-exposed-as-new-threat-to-global-rights/

Move over, NSO, there's a new kid in town. Though it is the undisputed king of the "legitimate"  cyber-crime business category, NSO has some new competition. Though there is enough overlap between investors and legal representation, that NSO and its competitor share more in common than whatever might divide them.

Citizen Lab and Microsoft have jointly revealed that the Israeli firm,  Candiru, set up 750 fake domain names meant to spoof legitimate human rights and social justice causes.  The spyware operation tempted targets to click on links which would download malware that hacked cell phones and PCs, offering hackers unlimited access to all their contents. Hundreds of individuals including political dissidents, human rights activists, academics, journalists and lawyers were targeted. They ranged geographically from Palestine, Israel, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Spain, United Kingdom, Turkey, Armenia, to Singapore.

The mercenary spyware company was founded in 2014 by Yaakov Weitzman and Eran Shorer.   It's largest shareholder is Issac Zak. Its current CEO is Eitan Achlow. Optas and Universal Motors Israel are among its largest corporate investors.

Candiru sold this dirty tech to repressive regimes around the world whose intelligence agencies sought to penetrate the privacy of regime opponents. Though contracts the company signed prohibited clients from targeting victims in Russia, China, the is and Israel, nevertheless these provision were ignored and citizens of a number of these states were attacked.

Not only could attackers gain full access to e mail, passwords, screen,  microphone, texts, phone calls, web browsing, photo and video.  Their malware can infect PCs,  Macs, Android, IOS and cloud accounts. They could even break into apps like Signal, whose encryption technology is meant to defeat precisely these sorts of exploits. This is the first time I've heard of a successful penetration of Signal. Though to be clear, the hackers have gained access to the Signal content once it's downloaded to the target's device.  This involves hacking the device rather than Signal's technology.

This is yet another example of Israel's leading role in exporting the national surveillance state throughout the world. The IDF's Unit 8200, develops battle-tested spyware to surveil Israel's enemies. Veterans of the unit then enter the commercial world where they sell their expertise to the highest technology bidder.  That in turn creates an attractive surveillance product to promote to foreign clients.

As Israel implements racism and apartheid at home, it offers oppressive foreign governments new means of adopting the worst of Israeli practices in their home countries. Feeling threatened by dissidents organizing to topple your authoritarian regime?  Need new methods to penetrate their movements and disrupt their plans? Look no further, Israel has a plan for you. From Kashmir to Moscow, from Tehran to Ramallah, Israel helps the worst of the worst hunt down the good guys and throw them in prison or worse (cf Jamal Khashoggi).

It's of course no irony that the company takes its name from a fierce flesh-eating Latin American fish,  the Candiru.   Just as Israel gobbles up freedom and human rights and consumes them whole,  Candiru assists intelligence agents and police thugs in exerting massive levels of social control and consuming all the oxygen in the political environment. The result, they hope,  is suffocation of their enemies.

Candiru, as a private company, is not bound by Israeli laws which restrict contact with "hostile nations."  Thus the Qatari sovereign wealth fund could take a partial ownership stake in the company without running afoul of Israeli laws.

As Forensic Architecture noted in its presentation about NSO's role in promoting state terrorism, exports of such commercial products, and investment in such companies by former Arab enemy states, advances Israel's diplomatic interests. The Godfather once said: "I want my friends close and my enemies closer." There are few motives stronger than greed and profit to cement ties between authoritarian regimes.