Occupied Jerusalem – The Israeli cyber company “Toka” – owned by former Israeli Security Minister Ehud Barak – managed to develop technology capable of monitoring the locations of surveillance cameras and the network of cameras in a specific geographical area.
The new technology developed by the Israeli company is capable of penetrating the immunity and protection programs for these cameras and watching the live broadcast through them. It can also change the live broadcast and mislead those who watch it, and then make a montage of the recordings of these cameras, according to a report by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
It is inferred from internal documents of the company – founded by Barak in 2018, and which has offices in Tel Aviv and Washington – that the technological capabilities developed by the company go far beyond that, according to the Israeli newspaper.
According to Haaretz, the Israeli company sells the technological capabilities it created and developed to police agencies, armies, law enforcement, national security agencies, and intelligence services around the world.
Deals and information
Documents covered by the newspaper showed that Israel is a customer of the technology company Toka, as it concluded deals with the Israeli Ministry of Security worth $6 million, provided that the company’s commercial activities with the Israeli ministry will be expanded with a new deal estimated at $1 million.
Toka documents revealed that the company concluded deals with Israel, America, Germany, and Australia, as well as with Singapore. The company also made contacts with the US Army Special Operations Command and the US intelligence service.
The technology developed by Toka works in a broader field than the technology developed by Israeli cyber companies, such as NSO GROUP and Candiru, which specialize in hacking smartphones and spying on their carriers, as it combines “offensive cyber Gathering and monitoring exposed intelligence information.
Hacking and spying
Toka uses special tools that enable the technology it has developed to penetrate sensors connected to the Internet, in order to collect intelligence information for operational purposes, whether it is a preview and identification of a specific geographical area on a map or monitoring surveillance cameras deployed in the place, as well as watching and controlling video broadcasts in cameras.
The new Israeli technology can also link to smart devices in cars to determine their location, path, and destination, and the company’s customers can secretly watch live broadcasts of surveillance cameras, as well as browse video archives, as well as mislead them in order to conceal field operations documented by the cameras.
Toka technology is also characterized by the ability to erase any trace of it from the recordings of the cameras that penetrate it, and its ability to re-montage the video recording, and to disturb live broadcasts, content, and video content, without leaving any digital trace, in contrast to the penetration of smartphones with programs – such as “Pegasus” and “Predator” – which leave behind a trace of the hack that enables the identification of the perpetrator to be identified.
Repercussions
Haaretz explained that these new technological capabilities – developed by Toka – could not have been imagined in the past, and their mere existence, circulation, and use raises many thorny and difficult questions, due to their repercussions and repercussions on human rights.
The newspaper does not exclude – through this technology – that a person will be convicted of crimes that he did not commit, as well as covering up crimes or concealing a crime that has already been committed, as well as reproducing documented events in a misleading and false way.
It is noteworthy that Ehud Barak co-founded Toka, along with the former head of the Cyber Authority in the Israeli army, Yaron Rosen, and two officers from the Defense Cyber Unit. Businessman Anderson Horovitch also invests in this company, and a capital fund that was among the investors in “Facebook”.
