Fearing any expected coup, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (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, had 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.
