A revealing report by the Guardian brings to light the actions of "Team Jorge", a group of Israeli consultants, which has been involved in the manipulation of more than 30 electoral processes around the world, using methods of hacking, sabotage and the deliberate spread of fake news on social media.
In fact, the publication mentions the presence of associates of this group in Greece, based on what the "brain" of the group stated.
The group is led by Tal Hanan, a former Israeli Armed Forces official who now operates under the pseudonym "Jorge" and is alleged to have operated behind the scenes, controlling electoral processes in various countries for more than two decades, according to the Guardian.
Hanan's actions were exposed by an international team of investigative journalists who obtained documents and classified material from the Guardian. The journalists work for Le Monde, Spiegel and El Pais. The project, which is part of a wider investigation into the disinformation industry, was coordinated by the French NGO Forbidden Stories, which aims to continue the work and research of journalists who have been threatened, imprisoned or murdered.
The investigation reveals in shocking detail how the notorious “Team Jorge” turns disinformation into a weapon, with the group even offering the services of influencing election results without leaving the slightest trace behind. Its clientele also includes large companies, the Guardian highlights.
Hanan told reporters that his services are available to intelligence agencies, political party , and companies that secretly want to manipulate public opinion. He said they have been used in countries in Africa, Central and South America, the United States, and Europe.
The role of Aims
One of the most notable services offered by Hanan 's team is the Aims software package , which essentially controls an army of fake profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Telegram, Gmail, Instagram and YouTube . Some of the profiles also have Amazon accounts along with credit cards, bitcoin wallets and Airbnb profiles.
Through material that emerged from long-term secret meetings between Hanan and journalists who approached him as potential clients, it is revealed how Team Jorge can gather information on opponents, using hacking to access Gmail and Telegram. In fact, as the Guardian, they showed considerable pride in the fact that they can "plant software" even on websites belonging to global media, through Aims.
The main axis of their strategy revolves around harassing and sabotaging the campaigns of opposing candidates. They even admitted to sending a sex toy via Amazon to a politician's home, aiming to give his wife the impression that he was cheating on her!
Presenting Aims to potential clients, Hanan browsed through dozens of avatars, showing how fake profiles can be created in seconds, using tags to instantly match the gender, ethnicity, and names preferred by its operators.
Hanan did not respond to a question about the origin of the photos he used in his avatars, but the Guardian discovered that in some cases, the photos were stolen from real social media.
Aims bots (automated profiles) have so far been detected in Britain, the US, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Mexico, Senegal, India and the United Arab Emirates.
Along with Aims, Hannan also introduced the “blog engine.” An automated system that creates websites whose profiles are controlled by Aims and can spread fake news online. “When you create a sense of validity, what happens next? You can easily manipulate,” he said.
The revealing material
Guardian journalists do not hesitate to express their surprise that such a well-organized group was “exposed” by undercover reporters. Hannan’s secretly videotaped conversations with journalists took place between July and December 2022.
Specifically, three individuals working at Radio France, Haaretz, and TheMarker approached Team Jorge posing as government advisors from a politically unstable country in Africa, asking Hanan for help in postponing the elections.
The talks with Hanan and his associates took place via video calls, while a meeting also took place at the group's operations base in an area 20 kilometers outside Tel Aviv.
Hannan described his team as "experts in government services," with excellent performance in finances, handling social media, campaign planning, and "psychological warfare.".
"We have a team in Greece and one in the Emirates. Follow our instructions. In total, we have completed 33 campaigns at the presidential level, 27 of them completely successful." He then mentioned that he has been involved in two major projects in the US, without confirming that he has directly interfered in the US political scene.
The Guardian notes that it is impossible to confirm all of Hanan's claims about his team's activities, as there is a suspicion that he may have been "inflating" his stories in order to attract potential clients to close new deals. As for them, Team Jorge told reporters that it accepts payments in a variety of cryptocurrencies, as well as in cash. As they specifically stated, for election interference they charge an amount ranging from 6 to 15 million euros!
However, emails leaked to the Guardian showed that Hannan's costings were much more "collected". One of them showed that in 2015 he requested 160,000 euros from Cambridge Analytica for two months of involvement in a campaign involving a Latin American country. Hannan's collaboration with Cambridge Analytica continued in 2017, this time for Kenya. However, the amount of 400-600,000 dollars he requested could not be covered by local authorities.
The Guardian reached out to Alexander Nix, a former executive at Cambridge Analytica, who described the information as “confusing.”
Interventions in Gmail and Telegram
Then, according to the Guardian, Hannan showed the undercover journalists posing as potential clients his team's hacking capabilities, particularly when it came to Telegram and Gmail accounts. He immediately brought up the Gmail profile of a government adviser who played a role in the Kenyan elections.
“Now, if someone has a Gmail, it means they have more than just an email account.” Then came the hacking of Telegram profiles. One of the profiles he accessed belonged to an Indonesian citizen who was involved in the national elections. Then he reached William Ruto, who went on to secure the presidency.
"I know that in some countries they think Telegram is safe. I'll show you how... safe it is," he reportedly said, continuing the live hacking in front of the astonished eyes of journalists. "One of the most important parameters is to use the right blackmail for those you want to manipulate. I can write to each target what I think about his wife, or about his last speech."
Hannan then showed how he can erase his tracks once the recipient reads the message, emphasizing to incognito reporters that through hacking services he managed to find security holes in the global SS7 telecommunications system.
“To be clear, I deny that I am acting illegally,”Hanan reportedly said, while his brother and associate, Zohar, added. “I have acted in accordance with the law my entire life…”
Source of information: documentonews.gr
