The NYT's lead story recently featured a chilling story of the infamous Israeli cyber-security firm, NSO Group, whose Pegasus malware has been illegally utilized by Mexican intelligence agencies to spy on legitimate human rights and anti-corruption activists. NSO negotiates lucrative contracts with foreign governments, which purportedly use the malware to … [Read more...]
Al Jazeera: Jordan, Not Israel, Was Original Intelligence Source for ISIS Bomb Plot
Boy, what a difference a day makes. On Monday, I published an article in Middle East Eye in which I speculated that Jordan was the likely source of the intelligence which Donald Trump relayed to the Russians about an ISIS airplane bomb plot. I wrote then: None of the media stories reveal the name of the foreign nation whose operation Trump exposed. … [Read more...]
Israeli Intelligence Budget Nearly Doubles in Past Decade Under Netanyahu
Haaretz reports Israel's two main intelligence agencies have nearly doubled their budgets in the past twelve years. Both the Mossad and Shabak had budgets of $1.3-billion in 2005. The upcoming budget for 2018 is slated to rise to $2.2-billion. It's no accident that much of the dramatic rise in budgetary expenditures happened during Bibi Netanyahu's prime … [Read more...]
Shabak Creates Cyber-Combat Division
Not to be outdone by the IDF, which has Unit 8200; and Mossad, which just launched its own cyber-terror capability; Israel's domestic spy agency, the Shabak, just launched its own cyber-combat unit. It's done so in what the agency believes is a playful, humorous mode by creating customized, mock video game sites. They feature a scenario in which an agent … [Read more...]