Ahacking group known as OilAlpha with likely ties to Yemen’s Houthi movement has targeted top Saudi officials, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), media outlets, and nonprofits via WhatsApp as part of a digital espionage campaign, intelligence sources revealed.
From April to May 2022, OilAlpha sent malicious Android files through WhatsApp to political representatives and journalists, the sources noted.
The hacking group appears to favor using remote access tools to install mobile spyware such as SpyNote and SpyMax.
According to the source, both SpyNote and SpyMax include the ability to access call logs, SMS data, contact information, network information, access to the device’s camera and audio, as well as GPS location data, among others.
The espionage campaign came just as Saudi Arabia hosted negotiations between Yemeni leaders involved in the nearly decade-long civil war.
Security sources have earlier revealed that a Tel Aviv-based company offered Saudi Arabia a system that hacks mobile phones belonging to some members of the royal family.
Saudi Arabia has bought $300 million worth of spy software from Israel as part of a large scale military deal, the sources added.
The Israeli company, Quadream, had sold cyber-espionage tech to Saudi Arabia, enabling the kingdom to track down political dissidents and members of the royal family and tap their communications.
The company uses a front in Cyprus to sell its Reign spyware, which apparently extracts data from iPhones, remotely controls the camera, and eavesdrops and tracks the locations of the device users without their knowledge.
Such sensitive technology can be exported under the supervision of Israeli military experts.
According to the sources, the Israeli company Quadream, led by a former Israeli military intelligence official, has been selling its services to Saudi Arabia since 2019.
Back in early December 2018, news reports revealed that Tel Aviv was directly involved in the sale of sophisticated spyware to Saudi Arabia to help the kingdom purge and assassinate dissidents.
