PARIS (Daily Pakistan Online) According to an undercover media investigation, an Israeli firm tried to influence more than 30 elections around the world for clients by hacking, sabotaging and spreading disinformation. One thing that is clear from this is that powerful firms around the world are benefiting through hacking and social media influencers.
According to news agency AFP, the firm was dubbed ‘Team George’ by investigative journalists who came forward as potential clients to gather information about its practices and capabilities. The firm’s boss is Tal Hanan, a former Israeli special forces officer who allegedly controlled secure Telegram accounts and thousands of fake social media profiles as well as planted news.
The investigation was conducted by a consortium of journalists from 30 outlets, including the Guardian in the UK, Le Monde in France, Der Spiegel in Germany and El Pais in Spain, under the direction of the France-based non-profit Forbidden Stories. The Guardian wrote ‘The methods and techniques described by Team George pose new challenges for major tech platforms.’
Tal Hanan, 50, told three undercover reporters that his services, often called ‘black ops’ in the industry, are available to intelligence agencies, political campaigns and private companies. Including, we have a team in Greece and a team in the Emirates, we have completed 33 presidential level campaigns, 27 of which were successful. Two-thirds of our campaigns were in Africa.’
Demonstrating his technology to journalists, he appeared to hack into the Gmail inboxes and Telegram accounts of political activists in Kenya days before the presidential election.
