A report was recently revealed in which the US giant explains that it has identified politically motivated espionage operations carried out by a group that would be based in Gaza and affiliated with Hamas, a political movement that has a presence in this Palestinian enclave.
The Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank, and Hamas will face off in legislative elections scheduled for May, which are held for the first time in 15 years. According to Facebook, the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Service (PSS) spies on journalists, opponents of the government, led by Fatah, human rights militants, and armed groups, mainly in the West Bank, Gaza, and Syria, but also in other countries like Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, and Libya.
The PSS has used unsophisticated spy programs disguised as secure messaging applications” to infiltrate Android devices and collect information such as the call list, location, contact list, and SMS, according to the report.
According to Facebook, the intelligence service has used false accounts allegedly belonging to young women, but also to “supporters of Hamas, Fatah, various military groups, journalists and militants”, to “create a climate of trust with the affected people. and incite them to install malicious programs ”.
The report also mentions “state-sponsored cyber-espionage operations”, referring to the activities of the Arid Viper group, which according to experts, has launched cyber attacks against Israel from the Gaza Strip since 2013.
But, according to Facebook, the group also targets Palestinians, in particular, “people linked to pro-Fatah groups, Palestinian government organizations, military and security personnel, and student groups” in the Palestinian territories.
Arid Viper has used “more than a hundred internet pages containing iOS and Android malicious programs, to try to steal access codes with phishing techniques or by acting as control servers.”
Consequently, Facebook has removed accounts deemed to be related to PSS and Arid Viper; “It has spread the signature of malicious programs, blocked the pages associated with these activities and has warned those affected.”
AFP
