Over the last two decades, there has been no shortage of predictions regarding the relevance of cyberspace in conflict. As far back as 1993, John Arquilla, a professor of defense analysis at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, and David Ronfeldt, an American researcher known for his work on information-centric and network-centric warfare, warned that a “cyberwar is coming.” The Israeli occupation’s parallel cyberwar alongside the military operations in Gaza is fulfilling this prophecy.
Arquilla compared how the dynamics of war have changed in parallel to the evolution of human technologies: “Industrialization led to warfare by massive armies (World War I). Mechanization led to maneuvers predominated by tanks (World War II). The information revolution implies the rise of cyber threats, where neither military size nor strategic mobility will decide outcomes. Rather, it will be the side that has the most information about the enemy.”
In other words, modern technology has made information far more accessible. This has led to an evolution of the way nations wage war with each other.
IOF’s tech onslaught on Palestine
Countries are actively looking for methods to take advantage of this technological evolution to improve their armies’ capabilities on the battlefield. They use intelligence gathering, strategic planning, and cutting-edge technologies for a more effective and efficient military response. Armed forces now depend heavily on integrating information technology into their operations.
Visualizing Palestine (VP), a project that creates data-led, visual stories to advance a factual and rights-based narrative of Palestine and Palestinians, published “Fact Sheet: the Israeli Cyber Industry.” The sheet highlighted how Israeli cyber firms claimed 31% of global investment in the cyber sector and total military exports valued at $8.8 billion, while its cyber exports were valued at $10 billion in 2020.
According to Visualizing Palestine, the Israeli occupation is also known for engaging in “spyware diplomacy,” supplying offensive cyber tech as a bargaining chip to promote normalization in countries like Bahrain, the UAE, Morocco, and Saudi Arabia. Another article by Haartz showcases that the Israeli occupation has more surveillance companies per capita than any other country.
As stated by Who Profits, an independent research center dedicated to exposing the commercial involvement of Israeli and international corporations in the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Syrian land and population, Unit 8200, the Israeli intelligence unit responsible for Israeli cyber offense, is the largest unit of the Israeli military.
In addition, as stated by +972 magazine in “‘Lavender’: The AI machine directing Israel’s bombing spree in Gaza,” the IOF has been strongly reliant on the synergy between human and artificial intelligence from the early days of the latest war on Gaza, especially since the current commander of the elite Israeli intelligence unit 8200 Brigadier General Yossi Sariel was confirmed by +972 as the author of the book “The Human-Machine Team: How to Create Synergy Between Human and Artificial Intelligence That Will Revolutionize Our World” that was released in 2021.
A new investigation by +972 Magazine and Local Call reveals that the Israeli army has developed an artificial intelligence-based program known as “Lavender,” unveiled here for the first time. Lavender has played a central role in the unprecedented bombing of Palestinians, especially during the early stages of the war, according to testimonies by six Israeli intelligence officers, who have all served in the army during the current war on the Gaza Strip and had first-hand involvement with the use of AI to generate targets for assassination. In fact, according to the sources, its influence on the military’s operations was such that they essentially treated the outputs of the AI machine “as if it were a human decision.”
Nonetheless, it is important to note that the use of AI should not be used as a cover to justify or explain the mass indiscriminate murder of men, women, and children, amounting to nearly 40,000 civilians killed in Gaza. The occupation army and government should be held responsible and accountable for their death.
Israel’s tactics of espionage
In Lebanon, the occupation takes advantage of Lebanon’s underdeveloped cybersecurity infrastructure while weaponizing machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques such as facial and object recognition. The IOF has been able to exploit weaknesses in Lebanon’s digital defenses by accurately pinpointing particular individuals within a specific location while also considering the target’s surrounding environment.
According to the “Israeli Internet Association,” if a spyware program is successfully installed, its operator gains access to all the information available through the device, even if it was produced or accumulated many years ago or by third parties (just as they would in a physical search of the device). Additionally, the spyware will be able to continually monitor its use, operate its software, and activate its hardware unbeknownst to the device owner.
Simply put, Israel uses spyware, like the well-known Pegasus, to remotely infiltrate zero-day exploitable smartphones. Zero-day refers to a vulnerability in which the spyware takes advantage of a bug in a phone that has not been kept up to date with its operating system and software updates to hack, wiretap, search, and extract data from the device.
Next, they use artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze and cross-reference the vast data extracted from the devices. These tools can automatically show trends and useful information about a target’s behavior, including a wealth of details about their contacts and social networks.
Furthermore, Israel’s primary allies are part of the Five Eyes alliance, consisting of the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. This alliance has been known for conducting signal intelligence (SIGINT) surveillance throughout the WANA region since the network’s creation during World War II.
This means Israel has access to a great deal of data across the region, including phone conversations, email content, browsing histories, and descriptive data such as software installation, usage, and deletion. It also has access to information that reveals when the device was powered on or off, when a user read a message, Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connections and their details, web searches, and even deleted data.
In addition, Israel possesses drones equipped with advanced technology that allows them to intercept signals, including those transmitted by phones. These drones integrate sensors with artificial intelligence to identify targets such as armory stations and even the presence of human beings in a certain location.
The IOF uses video analysis from drones to locate ways of entry into buildings, map the interiors of unidentified structures, identify and map locations in real-time, and differentiate between building inhabitants who are combatants and those who are not.
Additionally, drones can interfere between a device and a network transmission, typically called GPS jamming. The phone keeps working generally while the drone imitates the network’s signals. However, the drone intercepts everything the phone sends or receives in this case.
How do we protect ourselves?
Now for the important question: What can we, as users, do in response to such advanced attacks? Does disconnecting security cameras from the internet lessen the chance of hacking? It does, especially considering that many cameras connected to the internet do not encrypt the data traveling between the device and the server IP address. This also applies to phone connections that allow the user to see the camera, which makes this data easily interceptable.
Finally, computers and mobile devices have become essential to our daily lives, rendering them irreplaceable. We can take simple actions, such as removing unnecessary apps, limiting app permissions, switching off the phone while not in use, and minimizing digital fingerprints from pictures and videos. Most importantly, be careful who you talk to on the internet, and avoid any suspicious links, emails, direct messages on social media platforms, or text messages you might receive.
It is important to note that these measures can be effective only to a certain extent. The work that needs to be done to better our overall cyber security is beyond what an individual user can do. It is the responsibility of the Lebanese government to mitigate weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the telecom infrastructure.
