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Article

8 Jun 2021

Author:
Gur Megiddo, Haaretz

Secretive Israeli cyber firm selling spy-tech to Saudi Arabia

... Quadream is an offensive cyber company focused on breaking into and hacking mobile phones. They provide technological solutions to those who want to extract data from smartphones and even allow their clients to turn those phones into remotely operated spying devices that track their unwitting owners.

... Among Quadream’s clients are law enforcement agencies from a number of legitimate countries, a source says, “but there are also others.” Haaretz has discovered that the firm provided its services to one of the most oppressive and least democratic regimes in the Middle East: Saudi Arabia.

... A sales deck intended for potential clients and obtained by Haaretz reveals that Quadream uses a Cyprus-based company called InReach to sell its services abroad... According to the deck, the main hacking tool - the virus that actually infects target phones, called Reign - belongs to InReach itself... Reign, the InReach deck claims, has zero-click capabilities for iPhones.

... The use of a Cypriot company as its front sales office may have regulatory consequences. Israeli cyber companies are subjected to the oversight of Israel’s defense export regulator. But this does not apply to a Cypriot entity. The Defense Ministry did not respond to Haaretz’s questions regarding the oversight of Quadream and InReach. Quadream also did not respond.

... In September 2020, reports from Ghana said that 14 Israelis from the cyber industry arrived in the country... Haaretz has confirmed two key aspects of the report: Firstly, staff from Quadream did arrive in Ghana at that time and secondly, Quadream has worked for the Ghanian government. However, Haaretz did not confirm for what end they were in the country or what was the project they were involved in. Haaretz also confirmed that Quadream pitched its services to an official agency in Indonesia. Quadream declined to comment on this report