High-tech surveillance van allegedly used to intercept phones and messaging apps
Cyprus police have arrested three employees of a firm owned by a former Israeli intelligence officer over suspicions they used a high-tech surveillance van to intercept communications.
The latest case follows mounting concern over the operations of Israeli spyware and surveillance companies across the globe who have been implicated in a series of high-profile scandals, including targeting Harvey Weinstein’s accusers and selling spyware allegedly used to hack the phones of human rights activists.
The arrests in Cyprus involve a Cypriot-registered company called WiSpear, owned by Tal Dilian, an Israeli described in local media as a former intelligence officer with customers in Africa, the Gulf and far east.
In a bizarre twist, Dilian had been interviewed by Forbes magazine on Cyprus this year boasting of the surveillance capabilities of the vehicle involved, a former GMC ambulance fitted out with about $9m worth of equipment, which he claimed could intercept phones and social messaging apps including WhatsApp from a distance of a kilometre.
Read more at https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/dec/20/cyprus-police-arrest-three-in-israeli-owned-spy-van-investigation
