Hacks, bots, blackmail: 'Israeli firm meddled in over 30 elections worldwide'

An Israeli firm has influenced and manipulated more than 30 elections across the world through hacking, sabotage, and spreading automated disinformation on social media, a new report reveals.

The firm is headed by 50-year-old Tal Hanan, a former Israeli special forces operative, who now works privately under the pseudonym of  "Jorge" and uses the codename “Team Jorge” for his unit.

Under the direction of the France-based non-profit Forbidden Stories, an investigation was carried out by a consortium of journalists from 30 outlets, including the Guardian in Britain, Le Monde in France, Der Spiegel in Germany and El Pais in Spain.

According to the undercover media investigation published on Wednesday, Hanan and his team appear to have been working for clients by hacking, sabotaging and spreading disinformation aimed at manipulating public opinion and influencing elections in various countries for more than two decades.

Hanan feels quite at home to boast of being able to control supposedly secure Telegram accounts and thousands of fake social media profiles, while insisting, "I deny any wrongdoing."

"We are now involved in one election in Africa... We have a team in Greece and a team in [the] Emirates... [We have completed] 33 presidential-level campaigns, 27 of which were successful," the Guardian quoted Hanan as saying in undercover footage.

According to the head of the Team Jorge, most of the campaigns, about two-thirds of them, were in Africa.

Forbidden Stories named the targets as two aides to William Ruto, who emerged victorious in the August 2022 elections in Kenya.

"One of Team Jorge’s key services is a sophisticated software package, Advanced Impact Media Solutions, or Aims. It controls a vast army of thousands of fake social media profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Telegram, Gmail, Instagram and YouTube. Some avatars even have Amazon accounts with credit cards, bitcoin wallets and Airbnb accounts.," the Guardian said.

According to the British daily, the undercover footage was filmed by three reporters, who approached Team Jorge under the guise of prospective clients.

Hanan also gloated that Team Jorge had planted a report on France's biggest television news channel BFM regarding the purported impact of sanctions against Russia on the yachting industry in Monaco.

"In more than six hours of secretly recorded meetings, Hanan and his team spoke of how they could gather intelligence on rivals, including by using hacking techniques to access Gmail and Telegram accounts," the Guardian said.

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