At least 10 countries around the world have reportedly used a new computer program to spy on journalists, opposition politicians and humanitarian activists.. A joint investigation by Microsoft and Citizen Lab has uncovered the operation of this application created by QuaDreama stealthy Israeli company.
The Microsoft study indicates that this company cyber mercenaries sells its platform espionage, known as REIGN, to governments to use to ensure compliance with the law. However, another study from the University of Toronto Research Center has identified at least five victims of civil society. Servers operating from Bulgaria, the United Arab Emirates, Ghana, Hungary, Israel, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Romania, Singapore, and Uzbekistan have also been located. Journalistic information indicates that they have also offered their services to the Moroccan and Indonesian authorities.
This list of countries worries researchers, since they have documented that some of them have used other espionage tools to violate the human rights. This is the case of Mexico, the United Arab Emirates and Hungary, all of which are implicated in the persecution of critical journalists, dissident politicians and activists. Although they do not know if the government of Israel uses this tool, they remember that they have already used others against the Palestinians.
Pegasus method
QuaDream’s espionage program took advantage of vulnerabilities on iOS versions 14.4 and 14.4.2—the operating system used by iOS products Apple— to send malicious calendar invitations and break into the mobile phone of its victims.
That would allow attackers to steal data, listen to calls, and activate the device’s camera and microphone. Although it is not certain, this technique could be overridden by new system updates.
This method is the same used by Pegasus, the most famous of the espionage programs built in Israel and which was used against at least 65 personalities from the independence sphere in Catalonia, but also against the Spanish president Pedro Sanchez.
What do we know about QuaDream?
Very little is known about QuaDream, which operates opaquely and has no website. The investigation reveals that the company was founded in 2016 by Ilan Dabelstein, Guy Geva y Nimrod Rinsky. The first is a former Israeli soldier who would be its executive director and largest shareholder. The other two would have worked before for NSO Group, the company behind Pegasus. It is unknown if they are all still part of the project. The last CEO would be Avi Rabinowitz.
Meta pointed out in its annual report that it had detected “some 250 accounts” that the Israeli firm would have used to test its abilities to ‘hack’ devices such as the iPhone but also those who use the operating system Android.
QuaDream would not sell its spyware directly to governments, but would do so through a Cyprus company called InReach, Time has reported. This information indicates that Saudi Arabia it could also be among the company’s customers.