Published: 17 February 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
No morals, no qualms, no borders: A shady group of hackers has turned chaos into business.
A Haaretz investigation has uncovered a group of Israeli and American hackers who make a business out of disrupting elections and unsettling international trouble spots.
The investigation outlines cases in Chad, Kenya, Mexico, Ecuador, Nigeria and even California where a shady outfit nicknamed “Team Jorge” has intervened.
The team has worked with the notorious Cambridge Analytical consulting firm, which notoriously used infiltrated private data in Donald Trump presidential campaign.
“The array of tools offered by the business include cyberattacks; transnational disinformation campaigns; forged documents; incrimination of political adversaries; dissemination of fake reports; theft of bank documents,” wrote investigators Gur Megiddo and Omer Benjakob.
“Each of the tools is an instrument that could be used to break down resistance to political moves, or just to liquidate (in every nonphysical sense) the client’s political, personal or business rivals.
“Without restraints, without morality and without discrimination, Jorge’s toolbox can be placed at the disposal of anyone ready to pay for it – even if its use resulted in an immediate danger to life.
“Jorge claimed that he and his staff had meddled in “33 presidential-level election campaigns” around the world, “in 27 of them successfully.” Even if he was exaggerating, this investigation shows that he tried to intervene in a number of elections in various countries over the past decade.”
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The people who kill the truth (Haaretz)
