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Earlier this month,
following years of precise Israeli air-and-drone strikes that had killed
dozens of senior Iran-backed militia commanders across Lebanon, Syria and
Iraq, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, Tehran’s most powerful proxy
force, sounded a belated public alarm about the artificial intelligence tools
that the Israel Defense Force (IDF) uses to target its foes.
“Essentially,
Nasrallah’s counter-intelligence deputies told him, ‘Boss, you’ve got to tell
everybody that the Israelis are cleaning our clocks,’” said a former CIA
counter-terrorism officer who is deeply knowledgeable about Israel’s spyware,
all boosted by a muscular application of artificial intelligence, or AI.
This former official, who served in Israel and asked to
remain anonymous in exchange for discussing sensitive intelligence
matters, was referring to Nasrallah’s lengthy Feb. 13 speech, which was
broadcast over Iran’s Press TV network. The Hezbollah chief warned his
audience that Israeli intelligence had hacked into the data bases of Arab
telecommunications firms across the region and vacuumed up millions of
telephone numbers, as well as the names and IP addresses of their
subscribers. Armed with that information, Nasrallah said the Israelis could
take remote control of their targets’ cell phones and computers, giving them
access to their emails, texts, photos and passwords. Without mentioning it by
name, the former official said, Nasrallah was clearly referring to Pegasus,
the now-commercial spyware developed by veterans of Unit 8200, the IDF’s
enterprising signal’s intelligence branch.
Nasrallah also warned that Israel’s cyber spies could covertly
activate a cell phone’s microphone and camera, allowing them to record a
target’s conversations and movements. And with a sophisticated AI
targeting platform that quickly sifts through vast amounts of that
information as well as GPS coordinates, Wi-Fi signal strengths, and cell
tower data, IDF officers could also quickly pinpoint a human target’s
location, right down to a specific room in a building or the seat of a
vehicle, enabling, as the late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon once
put it, “the separation of a terrorist’s head from his shoulders.”
In addition, Nasrallah warned that Israeli intelligence had
also hacked into the myriad unsecured, Internet-linked CCTV and security
cameras that operate across the Middle East, allowing both IDF military
intelligence and the Mossad to keep their crosshairs fixed on the comings and
goings of targeted militants.
“When the Israelis strike a target, many people search for
their spies and agents,” Nasrallah said. “But for these operations, they
don’t need spies. . .Your mobile phone is the spy. And it’s not just any spy.
It’s a lethal spy.”
Nasrallah ended his admonition with an urgent plea to his
fellow Shiite militants to turn off their cell phones and lock them away in
metal boxes—presumably to prevent Israel from using Pegasus to switch them
back on—and also, while they’re at it, to disconnect their CCTV and
security cameras from the Internet—all “for the sake of security and the
perseverance of this battle” against Israel.
Nasrallah’s speech is significant in that it marks the first
public acknowledgement of Israel’s technological prowess by a regional
adversary, as well as an apparent effort by Hezbollah and its Iranian backers
to learn as much as possible about the limitations of Israel’s spy technology
on the battlefield so it can come up with ways to thwart it, the former CIA
official explained.
“This
is an extraordinary cybersecurity warning, based on deep, inside knowledge,”
the former CIA official said of Nasrallah’s speech. “It’s absolutely
mind-bending. I’ve never heard anything like that.” ...
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