Originally published\u00a0<\/em>at<\/em>\u00a0MintPress News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n This past Sunday,\u00a0an investigation<\/a>\u00a0into the global abuse of spyware developed by veterans of Israeli intelligence Unit 8200 gained widespread attention, as it was revealed that the software \u2013 sold to democratic and authoritarian governments alike \u2013 had been used to illegally spy on an estimated 50,000 individuals. Among those who had their communications and devices spied on by the software, known as Pegasus, were journalists, human rights activists, business executives, academics and prominent political leaders. Among those targeted political leaders,\u00a0per reports<\/a>, were the current leaders of France, Pakistan, South Africa, Egypt, Morocco and Iraq.<\/p>\n The abuse of Pegasus software in this very way has been known\u00a0for several years<\/a>, though these latest revelations appear to have gained such traction in the mainstream owing to the high number of civilians who have reportedly been surveilled through its use. The continuation of the\u00a0now-years-long scandal<\/a>\u00a0surrounding the abuse of Pegasus has also brought\u00a0considerable controversy<\/a>\u00a0and notoriety to the Israeli company that developed it, the NSO Group.<\/p>\n While the NSO Group has become infamous, other Israeli companies with even deeper ties to Israel\u2019s intelligence apparatus have been selling software that not only provides the exact same services to governments and intelligence agencies but purports to go even farther.<\/p>\n Originally founded by former Israeli Prime Minister and Jeffrey Epstein associate Ehud Barak, one of these companies\u2019 wares are being used by countries around the world, including in developing countries with the direct facilitation of global financial institutions like the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank. In addition, the software is only made available to governments that are \u201ctrusted\u201d by Israel\u2019s government, which \u201cworks closely\u201d with the company.<\/p>\n Despite the fact that this firm has been around since 2018 and was covered in detail by this author for\u00a0MintPress News<\/em>\u00a0in January 2020<\/a>, no mainstream outlet \u2013 including those that have extensively covered the NSO Group \u2013 has bothered to examine the implications of this story.<\/p>\n Toka was launched in 2018 with the explicit purpose of selling a \u201ctailored ecosystem of cyber capabilities and software products for governmental, law enforcement, and security agencies.\u201d According to a profile of the company\u00a0published in\u00a0Forbes<\/em><\/a>\u00a0shortly after it launched, Toka advertised itself as \u201ca one-stop hacking shop for governments that require extra capability to fight terrorists and other threats to national security in the digital domain.\u201d<\/p>\n Toka launched with plans to \u201cprovide spy tools for whatever device its clients require,\u201d including not only smartphones but a \u201cspecial focus on the so-called Internet of Things (IoT).\u201d Per the company, this includes devices like Amazon Echo, Google Nest-connected home products, as well as connected fridges, thermostats and alarms. Exploits in these products discovered by Toka, the company said at the time, would not be disclosed to vendors, meaning those flaws would continue to remain vulnerable to any hacker, whether a client of Toka or not.<\/p>\n Today, Toka\u2019s software suite claims to offer its customers in law enforcement, government and intelligence the ability to obtain \u201ctargeted intelligence\u201d and to conduct \u201cforensic investigations\u201d as well as \u201ccovert operations.\u201d In addition, Toka offers governments its \u201cCyber Designers\u201d service, which provides \u201cagencies with the full-spectrum strategies, customized projects and technologies needed to keep critical infrastructure, the digital landscape and government institutions secure and durable.\u201d<\/p>\n Given that NSO\u2019s Pegasus targets only smartphones, Toka\u2019s hacking suite \u2013 which, like Pegasus, is also classified as a \u201clawful intercept\u201d product \u2013 is capable of targeting\u00a0any\u00a0<\/em>device connected to the internet, including but not limited to smartphones. In addition, its target clientele are the same as those of Pegasus, providing an easy opportunity for governments to gain access to even more surveillance capabilities than Pegasus offers, but without risking notoriety in the media, since Toka has long avoided the limelight.<\/p>\n In addition, while Toka professes that its products are only used by \u201ctrusted\u201d governments and agencies to combat \u201cterrorism\u201d and maintain order and public safety, the sales pitch for the NSO Group\u2019s Pegasus is remarkably similar, and that sales pitch has not stopped its software from being used to target dissidents, politicians and journalists. It also allows many of the same groups who are Toka clients, like intelligence agencies, to use these tools for the purpose of obtaining blackmail. The\u00a0use of blackmail<\/a>\u00a0by Israeli security agencies against civilian Palestinians to attempt to weaken Palestinian society and for political persecution is\u00a0well-documented<\/a>.<\/p>\n Toka has been described by market analysts as an \u201coffensive security\u201d company, though the company\u2019s leadership rejects this characterization. Company co-founder and current CEO Yaron Rosen asserted that, as opposed to purely offensive, the company\u2019s operations are \u201csomething in the middle,\u201d which he classifies as bridging cyber defense and offensive cyber activities \u2014 e.g., hacking.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s activities are concerning in light of the fact that Toka has been directly partnered with Israel\u2019s Ministry of Defense and other Israeli intelligence and security agencies since its founding. The company \u201cworks closely\u201d with these government agencies,\u00a0according to<\/a>an Israeli Ministry of Defense website. This collaboration, per Toka, is meant to \u201cenhance\u201d their products. Toka\u2019s direct IDF links are in contrast to the NSO Group, a company that does not maintain overt ties with the Israeli security state.<\/p>\n Toka\u2019s direct collaboration with Israel\u2019s government is also made clear through its claim that it sells its products and offers its services only to \u201ctrusted\u201d governments, law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies. Toka\u2019s Rosen has stated that Russia, China, and \u201cother enemy countries\u201d would never be customers of the company. In other words, only countries aligned with Israeli policy goals, particularly in occupied Palestine, are permitted to be customers and gain access to its trove of powerful hacking tools. This is consistent with Israeli government efforts to leverage Israel\u2019s hi-tech sector as a means of countering the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement globally.<\/p>\n Further evidence that Toka is part of this Israeli government effort to seed foreign governments with technology products deeply tied to Israel\u2019s military and intelligence services is the fact that one of the main investors in Toka is Dell Technologies Capital, which is an extension of the well-known tech company Dell. Dell was founded by Michael Dell,\u00a0a well-known pro-Israel partisan<\/a>\u00a0who has donated millions of dollars to the Friends of the IDF and is\u00a0one of the top supporters<\/a>\u00a0of the so-called \u201canti-BDS\u201d bills that prevent publicly employed individuals or public institutions in several U.S. states from supporting non-violent boycotts of Israel, even on humanitarian grounds. As\u00a0MintPress\u00a0<\/em>previously noted<\/a>, the fact that a major producer of consumer electronic goods is heavily investing in a company that markets the hacking of that very technology should be a red flag.<\/p>\n The government\u2019s initial admitted use of the hi-tech sector to counter the BDS movement coincided with the launch of\u00a0a new Israeli military and intelligence agency policy<\/a>\u00a0in 2012, whereby \u201ccyber-related and intelligence projects that were previously carried out in-house in the Israeli military and Israel\u2019s main intelligence arms are transferred to companies that, in some cases, were built for this exact purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n One of the reasons this was reportedly launched was to retain members of Unit 8200 engaged in military work who were moving to jobs in the country\u2019s high-paying tech sector. Through this new policy that has worked to essentially merge much of the private tech sector with Israel\u2019s national security state, some Unit 8200 and other intelligence veterans continue their work for the state but benefit from a private sector salary. The end result is that an unknown \u2013 and likely very high \u2013 number of Israeli tech companies are led by veterans of the Israeli military and Israeli intelligence agencies and serve, for all intents and purposes, as front companies. A closer examination of Toka strongly suggests that it is one such front company.<\/p>\n The company was co-founded by Ehud Barak, Alon Kantor, Kfir Waldman and retired IDF Brigadier General Yaron Rosen. Rosen, the firm\u2019s founding CEO and now co-CEO, is the former Chief of the IDF\u2019s cyber staff, where he was \u201cthe lead architect of all [IDF] cyber activities,\u201d including those executed by Israeli military intelligence Unit 8200. Alon Kantor is the former Vice President of Business Development for Check Point Software, a software and hardware company founded by Unit 8200 veterans. Kfir Waldman is the former CEO of Go Arc and a former Director of Engineering at technology giant Cisco.\u00a0Cisco<\/a>\u00a0is a leader in the field of Internet of Things devices and IoT cybersecurity, while\u00a0Go Arc<\/a>\u00a0focuses on applications for mobile devices. As previously mentioned, Toka hacks not only mobile devices but also has a \u201cspecial focus\u201d on hacking IoT devices.<\/p>\n In addition to having served as prime minister of Israel, Toka co-founder Ehud Barak previously served as head of Israeli military intelligence directorate Aman, as well as several other prominent posts in the IDF, before eventually leading the Israeli military as minister of defense. While minister of defense, he led Operation Cast Lead against the blockaded Gaza Strip in 2009, which resulted in the deaths of over 1,000 Palestinians and saw Israel\u00a0illegally use<\/a>\u00a0chemical weapons against civilians.<\/p>\n Toka is the first start-up created by Barak. However, Barak had\u00a0previously chaired and invested in<\/a>\u00a0Carbyne911, a controversial Israeli emergency services start-up that has expanded around the world and has become particularly entrenched in the United States. Carbyne\u2019s success has been despite the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, given that the intelligence-linked pedophile and sex trafficker had invested heavily in the company at Barak\u2019s behest. Barak\u2019s\u00a0close relationship<\/a>\u00a0with Epstein, including overnight visits to Epstein\u2019s now-notorious island and apartment complexes that housed trafficked women and underage girls, has been extensively documented.<\/p>\n Barak\u00a0stepped away<\/a>\u00a0from Toka in April of last year, likely as the result of the controversy over his Epstein links, which also saw Barak withdraw from his chairmanship of Carbyne in the wake of Epstein\u2019s death. Considerable evidence has pointed to Epstein having been an\u00a0intelligence asset<\/a>\u00a0of Israeli military intelligence who accrued\u00a0blackmail<\/a>\u00a0on powerful individuals for\u00a0the benefit<\/a>\u00a0of Israel\u2019s national security state and\u00a0other intelligence agencies<\/a>, as well as for personal gain.<\/p>\n Another\u00a0notable Toka executive<\/a>\u00a0is Nir Peleg, the company\u2019s Vice President for Strategic Projects. Peleg is the former head of the Research and Development Division at Israel\u2019s National Cyber Directorate, where he led national cybersecurity projects as well as government initiatives and collaborations with international partners and Israeli cybersecurity innovative companies. Prior to this, Peleg claims to have served for more than 20 years in leading positions at the IDF\u2019s \u201celite technology unit,\u201d though he does specify exactly which unit this was. His\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a>\u00a0profile lists him as having been head of the IDF\u2019s entire Technology Department from 2008 to 2011.<\/p>\n While at Israel\u2019s National Cyber Directorate, Peleg worked closely with\u00a0Tal Goldstein<\/a>, now the head of strategy for the World Economic Forum\u2019s Partnership against Cybercrime (WEF-PAC), whose members include government agencies of the U.S., Israel and the U.K., along with some of the world\u2019s most powerful companies in technology and finance. The goal of this effort is to establish a global entity that is capable of controlling the flow of information, data, and money on the internet. Notably, Toka CEO Yaron Rosen\u00a0recently called<\/a>\u00a0for essentially this exact organization to be established when he stated that the international community needed to urgently create the \u201ccyber\u201d equivalent of the World Health Organization to combat the so-called \u201ccyber pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n Claims that a \u201ccyber pandemic\u201d is imminent\u00a0have been frequent<\/a>\u00a0from individuals tied to the WEF-PAC, including CEO of Checkpoint Software Gil Shwed. Checkpoint is a member of WEF-PAC and two of its former vice presidents, Michael Anderson and Alon Kantor, are now Vice President for Global Sales and co-CEO of Toka, respectively.<\/p>\n Toka\u2019s Chief Technology Officer, and the chief architect of its hacking suite, is\u00a0Moty Zaltsman<\/a>, who is the only chief executive of the company not listed on the firm\u2019s website. Per his LinkedIn, Zaltsman was the Chief Technology Officer for then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Last January, when Toka\u00a0was covered<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0MintPress\u00a0<\/em>News, his profile stated that he had developed \u201coffensive technologies\u201d for Israel\u2019s head of state, but Zaltsman has since removed this claim. The last\u00a0Toka executive<\/a>\u00a0of note is Michael Volfman, the company\u2019s Vice President of Research and Development. Volfman was previously a cyber research and development leader at an unspecified \u201cleading technology unit\u201d of the IDF.<\/p>\n Also worth mentioning are Toka\u2019s main investors, particularly Entr\u00e8e Capital, which is managed by Aviad Eyal and Ran Achituv. Achituv, who manages Entr\u00e9e\u2019s investment in Toka and\u00a0sits on Toka\u2019s board of directors<\/a>, was the founder of the IDF\u2019s satellite-based signals intelligence unit and also\u00a0a former senior vice president<\/a>\u00a0at both Amdocs and Comverse Infosys. Both Amdocs and Comverse courted scandal in the late 1990s and early 2000s for their role in a massive\u00a0Israeli government-backed espionage operation<\/a>\u00a0that targeted U.S. federal agencies during that period.<\/p>\n Despite this scandal and others in the company\u2019s past, Comverse subsidiary Verint was subsequently contracted by the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) to\u00a0bug the telecommunications network<\/a>\u00a0of Verizon shortly after their previous espionage scandal was covered by mainstream media. The contract was part of Operation Stellar Winds and was approved by then-NSA Director Keith Alexander, who has since been\u00a0an outspoken advocate<\/a>\u00a0of closer Israeli-American government cooperation in cybersecurity.<\/p>\n In addition to Entr\u00e8e Capital, Andreessen Horowitz is another of Toka\u2019s main investors. The venture capital firm co-founded by Silicon Valley titan Marc Andreessen is\u00a0currently advised\u00a0<\/a>by former Secretary of the Treasury Larry Summers, a close friend of the infamous pedophile Jeffery Epstein.\u00a0Early investors<\/a>\u00a0in Toka that are no longer listed on the firm\u2019s website include Launch Capital, which is\u00a0deeply tied to the Pritzker family<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 one of the wealthiest families in the U.S., with close ties to the\u00a0Clintons<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Obamas<\/a>\u00a0as well as\u00a0the U.S.\u2019 pro-Israel lobby<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 andRay Rothrock<\/a>, a venture capitalist who spent nearly three decades at VenRock, the\u00a0Rockefeller family venture capital fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n In light of the aforementioned policy of Israel\u2019s government to use private tech companies as fronts, the combination of Toka\u2019s direct Israeli government ties, the nature of its products and services, and the numerous, significant connections of its leaders and investors to both Israeli military intelligence and past Israeli espionage scandals strongly suggests that Toka is one such front.<\/p>\n If this is the case, there is reason to believe that, when Toka clients hack and gain access to a device, elements of the Israeli state could also gain access. This concern is born out of the fact that Israeli intelligence has engaged in this exact type of behavior before as part of\u00a0the PROMIS software scandal<\/a>, whereby Israeli \u201csuperspy\u201d Robert Maxwell sold bugged software to the U.S. government, including highly sensitive locations involved in classified nuclear weapons research. When that software, known as PROMIS, was installed on U.S. government computers, Israeli intelligence gained access to those same systems and devices.<\/p>\n The U.S. government was not the only target of this operation, however, as the bugged PROMIS software was placed on the networks of several intelligence agencies around the world as well as powerful corporations and several large banks. Israeli intelligence gained access to all of their systems until the compromised nature of the software was made public. However, Israel\u2019s government was not held accountable by the U.S. government or the international community for its far-reaching espionage program, a program directly facilitated by technology-focused front companies. The similarities between the products marketed and clients targeted by Maxwell during the PROMIS scandal and currently by Toka are considerable.<\/p>\n While the ties between Toka and Israel\u2019s national security state are clear as day, what is also significant and unsettling about this company is how its entry into developing and developed countries alike is being facilitated by global financial institutions, specifically the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank. Notably, these are the only deals with governments that Toka advertises on its website, as the others are not made public.<\/p>\n Several projects funded by one or another of these two institutions have seen Toka become the \u201ccyber designer\u201d of national cybersecurity strategies for Nigeria and Chile since last year. Significantly, both countries\u2019 populations show strong support for Palestine and the BDS movement. In addition, Toka garnered a World Bank-funded contract with the government of Moldova, an ally of Israel,\u00a0last September<\/a>.<\/p>\n The World Bank selected Toka in February of last year to \u201cenhance Nigeria\u2019s cyber development,\u201d which includes developing \u201cnational frameworks, technical capabilities and enhancement of skills.\u201d Through the World Bank contract, Toka has now become intimately involved with both the public and private sectors of Nigeria that it relates to the country\u2019s \u201ccyber ecosystem.\u201d The World Bank\u2019s decision to choose Toka is likely the\u00a0result of a partnership<\/a>\u00a0forged in 2019 by the state of Israel with the global financial institution \u201cto boost cybersecurity in the developing world,\u201d with a focus on Africa and Asia.<\/p>\n \u201cDesigning and building sustainable and robust national cyber strategy and cyber resilience is a critical enabler to fulfilling the objectives of Nigeria\u2019s national cybersecurity policy and strategic framework,\u201d Toka CEO Yaron Rosen said in\u00a0a press release<\/a>\u00a0regarding the contract.<\/p>\n Given Toka\u2019s aforementioned use of its technology for only \u201ctrusted\u201d governments, it is notable that Nigeria has been\u00a0a strong ally<\/a>\u00a0of Palestine for most of the past decade, save for one abstention at a crucial UN vote in 2014. In addition to the government, numerous student groups, human rights organizations, and Islamic organizations in the country\u00a0are outspoken<\/a>\u00a0in their support for Palestine. With Toka\u2019s efforts to offer its products only to countries who align themselves with \u201cfriendly\u201d countries, their now intimate involvement with Nigeria\u2019s cyber development could soon have consequences for a government that has tended to support the Palestinian cause. This is even more likely given Toka CEO Rosen\u2019s statements at\u00a0an April 2021 event<\/a>\u00a0hosted by Israel\u2019s Ministry of Economy, where he emphasized the role of cyber in developing countries specifically in terms of their national defense and economic strategy.<\/p>\n Three months after the deal was struck with Nigeria through the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) selected Toka to advise the government of Chile on \u201cnext steps for the country\u2019s national cybersecurity readiness and operational capacity building.\u201d As part of the project, \u201cToka will assess the current cybersecurity gaps and challenges in Chile and support the IDB project implementation by recommending specific cybersecurity readiness improvements,\u201d per a\u00a0press release<\/a>. Toka claims it will help \u201cestablish Chile as a cybersecurity leader in South America.\u201d Regarding the deal, Toka\u2019s Rosen stated that he was \u201cthankful\u201d that the IDB had \u201cprovided us with this opportunity to work with the Government of Chile.\u201d<\/p>\n Israel signed consequential agreements for cooperation with the IDB\u00a0in 2015<\/a>, before further deepening those ties in 2019 by\u00a0partnering with the IDB<\/a>\u00a0to invest $250 million from Israeli institutions in Latin America specifically.<\/p>\n Like Nigeria, Chile has a strong connection with Palestine and is often a target of Israeli government influence efforts. Though the current far-right government of Sebasti\u00e1n Pi\u00f1era has grown close to Israel, Chile is home to the largest Palestinian exile community in the world outside of the Middle East. As a result, Chile has\u00a0one of the strongest<\/a>\u00a0BDS movements in the Americas, with cities declaring a non-violent boycott of Israel until the Pi\u00f1era administration\u00a0stepped in<\/a>\u00a0to claim that such boycotts can only be implemented at the federal level. Palestinian Chileans have strong influence on Chilean politics, with a recent, popular presidential candidate,\u00a0Daniel Jadue<\/a>, being the son of Palestinian immigrants to Chile. Earlier this year, in June, Chile\u2019s congress\u00a0drafted a bill<\/a>\u00a0to boycott goods, services and products from illegal Israeli settlements.<\/p>\n While Toka frames both of these projects as aimed at helping the cyber readiness and economies of the countries it now services, Israeli media has painted a different picture. For instance,\u00a0Haaretz\u00a0<\/em>wrote<\/a>\u00a0that Israel\u2019s partnerships with development banks, specifically those made in 2019 that resulted in these Toka contracts, were planned by an inter-ministerial committee set up by then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu \u201cto realize the potential of international development to strengthen the Israeli economy, improve Israel\u2019s political standing and strengthen its international role.\u201d One source,\u00a0quoted by\u00a0Haaretz<\/em><\/a>\u00a0as being close to this undertaking, stated that \u201cdevelopment banks are a way to help advance Israel\u2019s interests and agenda in the developing world, including Latin America. But it\u2019s not philanthropy.\u201d<\/p>\n Given these statements, and Toka\u2019s own\u00a0modus operandi<\/em>\u00a0as a company and its background, it seems highly likely that the reason both Nigeria and Chile were chosen as the first of Toka\u2019s development banks contracts was aimed at advancing the Israeli government\u2019s agenda in those specific countries, one that seeks to counter and mitigate the vocal support for Palestine among those countries\u2019 inhabitants.<\/p>\n The NSO Group and its Pegasus software is clearly a major scandal that deserves scrutiny. However, the treatment of the incident by the media has largely absolved the Israeli government of any role in that affair, despite the fact that the NSO Group\u2019s sales of Pegasus to foreign governments has been approved and defended by Israel\u2019s government. This, of course, means that Israel\u2019s government has obvious responsibility in the whole scandal as well.<\/p>\n In addition, the myopic focus on the NSO Group when it comes to mainstream media reporting on Israeli private spyware and the threats it poses means that other companies, like Toka, go uninvestigated, even if their products present an even greater potential for abuse and illegal surveillance than those currently marketed and sold by the NSO Group.<\/p>\nWorse than Pegasus<\/h3>\n
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Toka \u2014 born out of Israel\u2019s national security state<\/h3>\n
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World Bank, IDB aid Toka in targeting Palestine\u2019s allies<\/h3>\n
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The spyware problem goes far beyond NSO Group<\/h3>\n
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