Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's (MBS) growing obsession prompted him to spend billions of dollars on purchasing Israeli cyberespionage technology.
A global investigation published into Intellexa, an alliance of digital arms and surveillance firms owned by Israelis but operating from outside of Israel, reveals how the company sold its spyware to Saudi Arabia, where it was used against critics of the regime. The deal is estimated at $500 million.
Intellexa has been recently accused of supplying spyware that was discovered on the phones of governments’ political opponents.
On the other hand, senior Biden advisers quietly visited Saudi Arabia last week to continue talks on a potential mega-deal that could include a peace agreement between the kingdom and Israel.
Brett McGurk, the White House Middle East czar, and Amos Hochstein, Biden's senior adviser for energy and infrastructure, visited Saudi Arabia and met with MBS for several hours last Thursday.
As part of the mega-deal talks, the White House is negotiating a potential security agreement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, possible U.S. support for a Saudi civilian nuclear program, and U.S. approval for sophisticated weapons sales to the kingdom.
Fearing any expected coup, MBS has kicked the Saudi spy apparatus into overdrive.
His primary targets include opposition journalists and dissident activists living abroad, and members of the royal family.
Security sources have 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.
The reports said Israel’s ministry of military affairs had authorized the NSO Group to sell Pegasus, a patch of highly complicated software used for hacking and espionage, to the Saudi kingdom.
The report also stated the sale was carried out through a subsidiary of the NSO in Luxembourg. The firm, officially known as Q Cyber Technologies, enabled Riyadh to target individuals and entities in six Middle Eastern countries.
