The New Yorker
11/2/2019
Annals of Covert Action. Private Mossad for Hire.
Inside a plot to influence American elections, starting with one small-town race. Text by Adam Entous and Ronan Farrow. Art direction by Aviva Michaelov.
Collaborator Lucas Doerre
2019, Editorial, The New Yorker,
===
===
===
===
A ‘private Mossad for civilians’ goes worldwide to make its clients secure
Sabra Intelligence Solutions brings expertise acquired in Israel’s security services to the general population with, it says, a focus on operating ethically
By SHOSHANNA SOLOMON
FOLLOW7 August 2019, 3:30 pm
2
Illustrative image of an undercover intelligence agent (Artem Peretiatko; iStock by Getty Images)
The rise of anti-Semitic acts globally has prompted Jewish communities and institutions in the US, Europe, Mexico and Australia to seek out the security services of Israeli firm Sabra Intelligence Solutions.
The “intelligence officers” of Israeli firm Sabra Intelligence Solutions fly around the world from their office in Haifa to provide security services to clients around the world, mapping out sites and setting up a response plan in case of emergencies.
This includes providing advice on how many security personnel are needed on the ground and where to deploy them, where to set up “sterile rooms” where people can flee if an attacker comes on the scene, and how to provide security in an unobtrusive way.
Tzedakah Gift CardsKeep Watching
Skip Ad
The two-year-old company, which calls itself a Mossad for civilians, is staffed by people with extensive experience in operations and training who served in classified intelligence units in the Israeli army, the Israel Police and other Israeli intelligence organizations. The teams sent to the field often include cyber professionals, lawyers, economists, and an in-house psychologist, the firm said.
The teams track and gather information — using, for example, artificial intelligence technologies on security cameras — and analyze it to suggest steps that should be taken.
Sign up for the Tech Israel Dailyand never miss Israel's top tech stories
Newsletter email addressSUBSCRIBE
By signing up, you agree to the terms
The firm also says it works for Jewish communities facing anti-Semitism, but would not provide details.
Sabra Intelligence Solutions CEO Shay Chervinsky (Itzik Bellenitzki)
The firm was set up by Eran Bachar, who recruited his childhood friend Shay Chervinsky. The two grew up together in Bat Yam and kept in touch as they developed their respective careers. Bachar, who was injured during his army service in the paratrooper’s unit in 1995, went on to serve as an officer in the Israel Police surveillance unit and also worked for the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service.
During his service, Bachar held a variety of classified operational positions. Chervinsky, who has in the meantime become ultra-Orthodox, worked in a number of firms both high-tech and low-tech and brought business skills to the joint venture.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We saw there was a market opportunity,” Chervinsky, Sabra’s CEO, said in a recent interview with The Times of Israel. “We want to take the abilities of these various intelligence units and provide them to the general population, to the civilians who need them.”
The civilians Chervinsky referred to include not only Jewish communities around the world but also “billionaires” — people who need security services for all kinds of reasons and who are drawn by Israel’s strong security image, as its elite IDF units and Mossad and Shin Bet operations make headlines around the world.
These high net-worth individuals — including Russian oligarchs — come to Sabra with their “problems” and are looking to resolve them discreetly and with “creative solutions,” Chervinsky said.
For example, a publicly traded European company on the brink of closing a merger deal with another giant firm got shamed on social media — and the deal was scrapped.
“The board of the company was stressed, and the incident was affecting investors, with the share price of the firm dropping on the exchange. They came to us via word-of-mouth, via another client, and we flew a 4-person team out to them,” he said.
Sabra set up a local operations room — just as is done for an army operation — and “hunkered down” to analyze social media and other data. Using local operatives, the team worked round the clock and came up with next-day results indicating that a competing company was responsible for the social media smear.
ADVERTISEMENT
Illustrative image of an intelligence operations room (gorodenkoff; iStock by Getty Images)
The Sabra teams are also employed to find flaws in the security details of known and high-net-worth individuals, following them undercover to spot the weak links. The teams operate on the dark web, creating fake personas, to discover plots against clients. They also have undercover agents who contact and develop relationships with targets vis so- called “random encounters” to get information needed for clients, he said.
Sabra has helped a person recover some of the $50 million debt owed by an individual who claimed he couldn’t pay because he was undergoing a bad divorce, said Chervinsky. “We discovered that the person was actually still with his wife,” and went to the local authorities with that information. A Sabra teams has also advised an NBA player about improvements that could be made to his personal security.
“We showed him how he could have been kidnapped, for example, on a number of occasions,” Chervinsky said. “We showed him the weak points of his security and sat down with his team to give them tips.”
Illustrative image of an intelligence agent; spy or undercover operator (AlexLinch; iStock by Getty Images)
The Sabra team consists of 23 local employees and at any given moment 10 of them are abroad on missions.
“All the information we get is obtained legally and ethically,” Chervinsky hurries to underline. The firm employs a legal adviser who checks each operation; its board approves all operations it takes on and a rabbi is called when doubts arise regarding the ethics of a mission, he said.
Other more famous Israeli firms, including intelligence firm Black Cube, and cybersecurity firm NSO, have become notorious and earned global headlines for operations they have allegedly undertaken.
Black Cube, created by former Israeli intelligence agents, has drawn international attention for allegedly working to discredit Obama administration officials who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear agreement, as well as to protect the reputation of disgraced #MeToo Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Black Cube filed a £15 million ($19 million) lawsuit in the UK against Israeli investigative journalist Ilana Dayan after she broadcast an exposé on some of the alleged workings of the secretive company.
ADVERTISEMENT
Herzliya-based spyware firm NSO, founded in 2010 by Israelis Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, has developed Pegasus, a highly invasive tool that can reportedly switch on a target’s cellphone camera and microphone and access data on it, effectively turning the device into a pocket spy.
The software has put NSO under the spotlight as dissidents, journalists and other opposition figures in a variety of countries claimed the company’s technology has been used by repressive governments to spy on them. These include Mexican, Saudi and Qatari journalists who have filed lawsuits against the company, and an Amnesty International employee who was allegedly targeted by the software.
“We have set up fences to what we do and don’t do,” said Sabra’s Chervinsky. “We have turned away business to the tune of tens of millions of dollars because we are very careful with the cases we take on.”
===
A ‘private Mossad for civilians’ goes worldwide to make its clients secure
Sabra Intelligence Solutions brings expertise acquired in Israel’s security services to the general population with, it says, a focus on operating ethically
By SHOSHANNA SOLOMON FOLLOW
7 August 2019, 3:30 pm
2
Illustrative image of an undercover intelligence agent (Artem Peretiatko; iStock by Getty Images)
Illustrative image of an undercover intelligence agent (Artem Peretiatko; iStock by Getty Images)
The rise of anti-Semitic acts globally has prompted Jewish communities and institutions in the US, Europe, Mexico and Australia to seek out the security services of Israeli firm Sabra Intelligence Solutions.
The “intelligence officers” of Israeli firm Sabra Intelligence Solutions fly around the world from their office in Haifa to provide security services to clients around the world, mapping out sites and setting up a response plan in case of emergencies.
This includes providing advice on how many security personnel are needed on the ground and where to deploy them, where to set up “sterile rooms” where people can flee if an attacker comes on the scene, and how to provide security in an unobtrusive way.
Tzedakah Gift Cards
Keep Watching
Skip Ad
The two-year-old company, which calls itself a Mossad for civilians, is staffed by people with extensive experience in operations and training who served in classified intelligence units in the Israeli army, the Israel Police and other Israeli intelligence organizations. The teams sent to the field often include cyber professionals, lawyers, economists, and an in-house psychologist, the firm said.
The teams track and gather information — using, for example, artificial intelligence technologies on security cameras — and analyze it to suggest steps that should be taken.
Sign up for the Tech Israel Daily
and never miss Israel's top tech stories
Newsletter email address
Your email
SUBSCRIBE
By signing up, you agree to the terms
The firm also says it works for Jewish communities facing anti-Semitism, but would not provide details.
Sabra Intelligence Solutions CEO Shay Chervinsky (Itzik Bellenitzki)
The firm was set up by Eran Bachar, who recruited his childhood friend Shay Chervinsky. The two grew up together in Bat Yam and kept in touch as they developed their respective careers. Bachar, who was injured during his army service in the paratrooper’s unit in 1995, went on to serve as an officer in the Israel Police surveillance unit and also worked for the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service.
During his service, Bachar held a variety of classified operational positions. Chervinsky, who has in the meantime become ultra-Orthodox, worked in a number of firms both high-tech and low-tech and brought business skills to the joint venture.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We saw there was a market opportunity,” Chervinsky, Sabra’s CEO, said in a recent interview with The Times of Israel. “We want to take the abilities of these various intelligence units and provide them to the general population, to the civilians who need them.”
The civilians Chervinsky referred to include not only Jewish communities around the world but also “billionaires” — people who need security services for all kinds of reasons and who are drawn by Israel’s strong security image, as its elite IDF units and Mossad and Shin Bet operations make headlines around the world.
These high net-worth individuals — including Russian oligarchs — come to Sabra with their “problems” and are looking to resolve them discreetly and with “creative solutions,” Chervinsky said.
For example, a publicly traded European company on the brink of closing a merger deal with another giant firm got shamed on social media — and the deal was scrapped.
“The board of the company was stressed, and the incident was affecting investors, with the share price of the firm dropping on the exchange. They came to us via word-of-mouth, via another client, and we flew a 4-person team out to them,” he said.
Sabra set up a local operations room — just as is done for an army operation — and “hunkered down” to analyze social media and other data. Using local operatives, the team worked round the clock and came up with next-day results indicating that a competing company was responsible for the social media smear.
ADVERTISEMENT
Illustrative image of an intelligence operations room (gorodenkoff; iStock by Getty Images)
The Sabra teams are also employed to find flaws in the security details of known and high-net-worth individuals, following them undercover to spot the weak links. The teams operate on the dark web, creating fake personas, to discover plots against clients. They also have undercover agents who contact and develop relationships with targets vis so- called “random encounters” to get information needed for clients, he said.
Sabra has helped a person recover some of the $50 million debt owed by an individual who claimed he couldn’t pay because he was undergoing a bad divorce, said Chervinsky. “We discovered that the person was actually still with his wife,” and went to the local authorities with that information. A Sabra teams has also advised an NBA player about improvements that could be made to his personal security.
“We showed him how he could have been kidnapped, for example, on a number of occasions,” Chervinsky said. “We showed him the weak points of his security and sat down with his team to give them tips.”
Illustrative image of an intelligence agent; spy or undercover operator (AlexLinch; iStock by Getty Images)
The Sabra team consists of 23 local employees and at any given moment 10 of them are abroad on missions.
“All the information we get is obtained legally and ethically,” Chervinsky hurries to underline. The firm employs a legal adviser who checks each operation; its board approves all operations it takes on and a rabbi is called when doubts arise regarding the ethics of a mission, he said.
Other more famous Israeli firms, including intelligence firm Black Cube, and cybersecurity firm NSO, have become notorious and earned global headlines for operations they have allegedly undertaken.
Black Cube, created by former Israeli intelligence agents, has drawn international attention for allegedly working to discredit Obama administration officials who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear agreement, as well as to protect the reputation of disgraced #MeToo Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Black Cube filed a £15 million ($19 million) lawsuit in the UK against Israeli investigative journalist Ilana Dayan after she broadcast an exposé on some of the alleged workings of the secretive company.
ADVERTISEMENT
Herzliya-based spyware firm NSO, founded in 2010 by Israelis Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, has developed Pegasus, a highly invasive tool that can reportedly switch on a target’s cellphone camera and microphone and access data on it, effectively turning the device into a pocket spy.
The software has put NSO under the spotlight as dissidents, journalists and other opposition figures in a variety of countries claimed the company’s technology has been used by repressive governments to spy on them. These include Mexican, Saudi and Qatari journalists who have filed lawsuits against the company, and an Amnesty International employee who was allegedly targeted by the software.
“We have set up fences to what we do and don’t do,” said Sabra’s Chervinsky. “We have turned away business to the tune of tens of millions of dollars because we are very careful with the cases we take on.”
A ‘private Mossad for civilians’ goes worldwide to make its clients secure
Sabra Intelligence Solutions brings expertise acquired in Israel’s security services to the general population with, it says, a focus on operating ethically
By SHOSHANNA SOLOMON
FOLLOW7 August 2019, 3:30 pm
2
Illustrative image of an undercover intelligence agent (Artem Peretiatko; iStock by Getty Images)
The rise of anti-Semitic acts globally has prompted Jewish communities and institutions in the US, Europe, Mexico and Australia to seek out the security services of Israeli firm Sabra Intelligence Solutions.
The “intelligence officers” of Israeli firm Sabra Intelligence Solutions fly around the world from their office in Haifa to provide security services to clients around the world, mapping out sites and setting up a response plan in case of emergencies.
This includes providing advice on how many security personnel are needed on the ground and where to deploy them, where to set up “sterile rooms” where people can flee if an attacker comes on the scene, and how to provide security in an unobtrusive way.
Tzedakah Gift CardsKeep Watching
Skip Ad
The two-year-old company, which calls itself a Mossad for civilians, is staffed by people with extensive experience in operations and training who served in classified intelligence units in the Israeli army, the Israel Police and other Israeli intelligence organizations. The teams sent to the field often include cyber professionals, lawyers, economists, and an in-house psychologist, the firm said.
The teams track and gather information — using, for example, artificial intelligence technologies on security cameras — and analyze it to suggest steps that should be taken.
Sign up for the Tech Israel Dailyand never miss Israel's top tech stories
Newsletter email addressSUBSCRIBE
By signing up, you agree to the terms
The firm also says it works for Jewish communities facing anti-Semitism, but would not provide details.
Sabra Intelligence Solutions CEO Shay Chervinsky (Itzik Bellenitzki)
The firm was set up by Eran Bachar, who recruited his childhood friend Shay Chervinsky. The two grew up together in Bat Yam and kept in touch as they developed their respective careers. Bachar, who was injured during his army service in the paratrooper’s unit in 1995, went on to serve as an officer in the Israel Police surveillance unit and also worked for the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service.
During his service, Bachar held a variety of classified operational positions. Chervinsky, who has in the meantime become ultra-Orthodox, worked in a number of firms both high-tech and low-tech and brought business skills to the joint venture.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We saw there was a market opportunity,” Chervinsky, Sabra’s CEO, said in a recent interview with The Times of Israel. “We want to take the abilities of these various intelligence units and provide them to the general population, to the civilians who need them.”
The civilians Chervinsky referred to include not only Jewish communities around the world but also “billionaires” — people who need security services for all kinds of reasons and who are drawn by Israel’s strong security image, as its elite IDF units and Mossad and Shin Bet operations make headlines around the world.
These high net-worth individuals — including Russian oligarchs — come to Sabra with their “problems” and are looking to resolve them discreetly and with “creative solutions,” Chervinsky said.
For example, a publicly traded European company on the brink of closing a merger deal with another giant firm got shamed on social media — and the deal was scrapped.
“The board of the company was stressed, and the incident was affecting investors, with the share price of the firm dropping on the exchange. They came to us via word-of-mouth, via another client, and we flew a 4-person team out to them,” he said.
Sabra set up a local operations room — just as is done for an army operation — and “hunkered down” to analyze social media and other data. Using local operatives, the team worked round the clock and came up with next-day results indicating that a competing company was responsible for the social media smear.
ADVERTISEMENT
Illustrative image of an intelligence operations room (gorodenkoff; iStock by Getty Images)
The Sabra teams are also employed to find flaws in the security details of known and high-net-worth individuals, following them undercover to spot the weak links. The teams operate on the dark web, creating fake personas, to discover plots against clients. They also have undercover agents who contact and develop relationships with targets vis so- called “random encounters” to get information needed for clients, he said.
Sabra has helped a person recover some of the $50 million debt owed by an individual who claimed he couldn’t pay because he was undergoing a bad divorce, said Chervinsky. “We discovered that the person was actually still with his wife,” and went to the local authorities with that information. A Sabra teams has also advised an NBA player about improvements that could be made to his personal security.
“We showed him how he could have been kidnapped, for example, on a number of occasions,” Chervinsky said. “We showed him the weak points of his security and sat down with his team to give them tips.”
Illustrative image of an intelligence agent; spy or undercover operator (AlexLinch; iStock by Getty Images)
The Sabra team consists of 23 local employees and at any given moment 10 of them are abroad on missions.
“All the information we get is obtained legally and ethically,” Chervinsky hurries to underline. The firm employs a legal adviser who checks each operation; its board approves all operations it takes on and a rabbi is called when doubts arise regarding the ethics of a mission, he said.
Other more famous Israeli firms, including intelligence firm Black Cube, and cybersecurity firm NSO, have become notorious and earned global headlines for operations they have allegedly undertaken.
Black Cube, created by former Israeli intelligence agents, has drawn international attention for allegedly working to discredit Obama administration officials who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear agreement, as well as to protect the reputation of disgraced #MeToo Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Black Cube filed a £15 million ($19 million) lawsuit in the UK against Israeli investigative journalist Ilana Dayan after she broadcast an exposé on some of the alleged workings of the secretive company.
ADVERTISEMENT
Herzliya-based spyware firm NSO, founded in 2010 by Israelis Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, has developed Pegasus, a highly invasive tool that can reportedly switch on a target’s cellphone camera and microphone and access data on it, effectively turning the device into a pocket spy.
The software has put NSO under the spotlight as dissidents, journalists and other opposition figures in a variety of countries claimed the company’s technology has been used by repressive governments to spy on them. These include Mexican, Saudi and Qatari journalists who have filed lawsuits against the company, and an Amnesty International employee who was allegedly targeted by the software.
“We have set up fences to what we do and don’t do,” said Sabra’s Chervinsky. “We have turned away business to the tune of tens of millions of dollars because we are very careful with the cases we take on.”
===
A ‘private Mossad for civilians’ goes worldwide to make its clients secure
Sabra Intelligence Solutions brings expertise acquired in Israel’s security services to the general population with, it says, a focus on operating ethically
By SHOSHANNA SOLOMON FOLLOW
7 August 2019, 3:30 pm
2
Illustrative image of an undercover intelligence agent (Artem Peretiatko; iStock by Getty Images)
Illustrative image of an undercover intelligence agent (Artem Peretiatko; iStock by Getty Images)
The rise of anti-Semitic acts globally has prompted Jewish communities and institutions in the US, Europe, Mexico and Australia to seek out the security services of Israeli firm Sabra Intelligence Solutions.
The “intelligence officers” of Israeli firm Sabra Intelligence Solutions fly around the world from their office in Haifa to provide security services to clients around the world, mapping out sites and setting up a response plan in case of emergencies.
This includes providing advice on how many security personnel are needed on the ground and where to deploy them, where to set up “sterile rooms” where people can flee if an attacker comes on the scene, and how to provide security in an unobtrusive way.
Tzedakah Gift Cards
Keep Watching
Skip Ad
The two-year-old company, which calls itself a Mossad for civilians, is staffed by people with extensive experience in operations and training who served in classified intelligence units in the Israeli army, the Israel Police and other Israeli intelligence organizations. The teams sent to the field often include cyber professionals, lawyers, economists, and an in-house psychologist, the firm said.
The teams track and gather information — using, for example, artificial intelligence technologies on security cameras — and analyze it to suggest steps that should be taken.
Sign up for the Tech Israel Daily
and never miss Israel's top tech stories
Newsletter email address
Your email
SUBSCRIBE
By signing up, you agree to the terms
The firm also says it works for Jewish communities facing anti-Semitism, but would not provide details.
Sabra Intelligence Solutions CEO Shay Chervinsky (Itzik Bellenitzki)
The firm was set up by Eran Bachar, who recruited his childhood friend Shay Chervinsky. The two grew up together in Bat Yam and kept in touch as they developed their respective careers. Bachar, who was injured during his army service in the paratrooper’s unit in 1995, went on to serve as an officer in the Israel Police surveillance unit and also worked for the Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic security service.
During his service, Bachar held a variety of classified operational positions. Chervinsky, who has in the meantime become ultra-Orthodox, worked in a number of firms both high-tech and low-tech and brought business skills to the joint venture.
ADVERTISEMENT
“We saw there was a market opportunity,” Chervinsky, Sabra’s CEO, said in a recent interview with The Times of Israel. “We want to take the abilities of these various intelligence units and provide them to the general population, to the civilians who need them.”
The civilians Chervinsky referred to include not only Jewish communities around the world but also “billionaires” — people who need security services for all kinds of reasons and who are drawn by Israel’s strong security image, as its elite IDF units and Mossad and Shin Bet operations make headlines around the world.
These high net-worth individuals — including Russian oligarchs — come to Sabra with their “problems” and are looking to resolve them discreetly and with “creative solutions,” Chervinsky said.
For example, a publicly traded European company on the brink of closing a merger deal with another giant firm got shamed on social media — and the deal was scrapped.
“The board of the company was stressed, and the incident was affecting investors, with the share price of the firm dropping on the exchange. They came to us via word-of-mouth, via another client, and we flew a 4-person team out to them,” he said.
Sabra set up a local operations room — just as is done for an army operation — and “hunkered down” to analyze social media and other data. Using local operatives, the team worked round the clock and came up with next-day results indicating that a competing company was responsible for the social media smear.
ADVERTISEMENT
Illustrative image of an intelligence operations room (gorodenkoff; iStock by Getty Images)
The Sabra teams are also employed to find flaws in the security details of known and high-net-worth individuals, following them undercover to spot the weak links. The teams operate on the dark web, creating fake personas, to discover plots against clients. They also have undercover agents who contact and develop relationships with targets vis so- called “random encounters” to get information needed for clients, he said.
Sabra has helped a person recover some of the $50 million debt owed by an individual who claimed he couldn’t pay because he was undergoing a bad divorce, said Chervinsky. “We discovered that the person was actually still with his wife,” and went to the local authorities with that information. A Sabra teams has also advised an NBA player about improvements that could be made to his personal security.
“We showed him how he could have been kidnapped, for example, on a number of occasions,” Chervinsky said. “We showed him the weak points of his security and sat down with his team to give them tips.”
Illustrative image of an intelligence agent; spy or undercover operator (AlexLinch; iStock by Getty Images)
The Sabra team consists of 23 local employees and at any given moment 10 of them are abroad on missions.
“All the information we get is obtained legally and ethically,” Chervinsky hurries to underline. The firm employs a legal adviser who checks each operation; its board approves all operations it takes on and a rabbi is called when doubts arise regarding the ethics of a mission, he said.
Other more famous Israeli firms, including intelligence firm Black Cube, and cybersecurity firm NSO, have become notorious and earned global headlines for operations they have allegedly undertaken.
Black Cube, created by former Israeli intelligence agents, has drawn international attention for allegedly working to discredit Obama administration officials who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear agreement, as well as to protect the reputation of disgraced #MeToo Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein.
Black Cube filed a £15 million ($19 million) lawsuit in the UK against Israeli investigative journalist Ilana Dayan after she broadcast an exposé on some of the alleged workings of the secretive company.
ADVERTISEMENT
Herzliya-based spyware firm NSO, founded in 2010 by Israelis Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, has developed Pegasus, a highly invasive tool that can reportedly switch on a target’s cellphone camera and microphone and access data on it, effectively turning the device into a pocket spy.
The software has put NSO under the spotlight as dissidents, journalists and other opposition figures in a variety of countries claimed the company’s technology has been used by repressive governments to spy on them. These include Mexican, Saudi and Qatari journalists who have filed lawsuits against the company, and an Amnesty International employee who was allegedly targeted by the software.
“We have set up fences to what we do and don’t do,” said Sabra’s Chervinsky. “We have turned away business to the tune of tens of millions of dollars because we are very careful with the cases we take on.”
===
How An Israeli ‘Mossad For Hire’ Firm Manipulated A Small Town’s Local Election
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter
Share on Email
Print Article
Republish Article
Psy Group, a private Israeli intelligence firm, hacked a U.S. election
The logo for Psy-Group, from a brochure on the firm’s services. Image by via Psy-Group
Ari Feldman
By Ari Feldman
February 12, 2019
Israeli private intelligence firms have been increasingly in the spotlight, revealed as the suppliers for Harvey Weinstein’s “army of spies” and as creators of apps that repressive regimes can use to spy on activists and journalists.
Now, a New Yorker article is detailing how another firm — Psy-Group — used its intelligence expertise to manipulate a local election in a California town of 64,000 people.
Read a brochure from Psy-Group here.
Free morning newsletter
Forwarding the News
Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis of the crisis each day.
Terms(Required)
I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Email(Required)
Your email address
Psy-Group was hired by Yorai Benzeevi, a doctor in Tulare, Calif., to create fake social media opposition to a grassroots campaign organized to remove him as head of a local hospital. The target was a local hospital board election, where activists hoped to unseat the man responsible for putting Benzeevi in charge of the hospital. Community members had accused Benzeevi of letting a hospital slide into bankruptcy while pocketing large management fees for himself.
Psy-Group told Benzeevi it would mount “a coordinated intelligence operation and influence campaign,” using fake social media profiles and creating fake webpages to target “the opposition candidate.”
The group created the site Draintulareswamp.com, posting pictures of Senovia Gutierrez, the candidate running to unseat Benzeevi’s supporter, asking “Who Is Pulling Senovia’s Strings?” That site later published the Gutierrez’s bankruptcy filings from 2003.
The election was a landslide — against Psy-Group’s client.
The Forward has previously reported how Psy-Group, based outside Tel Aviv, proposed a campaign to target proponents of the Boycotts, Divestments and Sanctions movement against Israel on college campuses.
Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at feldman@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman
Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. He covers Jewish religious organizations, synagogue life, anti-Semitism and the Orthodox world. If you have any tips, you can email him at feldman@forward.com. Follow him on Twitter @aefeldman.
===
No comments:
Post a Comment