Israeli Hacking Software: Technology Can Be Taken From Anywhere, Defense Minister

Defense Minister Khawaja Asif in a conversation with Independent Urdu said that hacking technology and software are available in the international market and Pakistan can get such technology anywhere in the world as per its requirement.

Khawaja Asif’s reaction came on the news published in Haaretz, a major Israeli newspaper, which claimed that Pakistan’s civilian intelligence agency ‘FIA’ and the police had been using the hacking technology of a company in Israel for several years. using from

According to Haaretz newspaper, Pakistan’s FIA and police have been using Israeli technology company Celebrate’s software since 2012.

Celebrity software gives law enforcement agencies access to mobile phones that are ‘password protected’ and all the information on these phones can be copied with the help of this software.

Khawaja Asif said that this type of technology is available in the international market. It is not that if America has technology then Pakistan needs to go somewhere far and get it. Israel or England or China, all these technologies are available.’

“To say that we have taken Israel’s technology, whatever is available in the international market or whatever is the best product available is being taken by our security agencies, and it is from one country or one source,” the defense minister said. Not being taken.’

He further said that ‘Pakistan has no relation with Israel, we have neither diplomatic nor commercial relations with Israel.’

“Whatever technology is available in the international market we take from there and its origin can be any.” Pakistan does not recognize Israel and the Pakistani passport clearly states that it is valid for all countries except Israel.

Attempts were made to contact the Federal Investigation Agency of Pakistan ‘FIA’ several times on Thursday, but no response or response has been received so far.

Although ‘FIA’ did not confirm or deny the information revealed in the Israeli newspaper, but in the tender notice issued on August 26, 2021 on the website of ‘FIA’ itself regarding the purchase of modern equipment, the Israeli company A celebrity software was also requested.

To what extent is Celebrity software being used in Pakistan?

Former Chief Cyber ​​Security Officer of Pakistani FIA, Dr. Fatehuddin, while talking to Independent Urdu, said that the software of Celebrity is being commonly used by security agencies across Pakistan.
He said, ‘Any intelligence agency of Pakistan, any law enforcement agency of Pakistan, any military agency of Pakistan, you name it, I will tell you that they have a celebrity.’

Dr. Fateh’s statement is also confirmed by the fact that the brochure published by the National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation under the defense equipment exhibition Ideas 2020 in Pakistan also mentions a product of Celebrity.

On page 17 of this brochure, there is an advertisement for the Celebrite UFED Touch 2, which says below that it is a fifth-generation mobile forensic device that can help agencies solve crimes faster.

Dr. Fateh said that among the two most popular mobile forensic software in the world, one is developed by Celebrity, while the other is developed by the Swedish company ‘XYZ’. He said that not only Pakistan, but there will hardly be any country in the world where these tools are not being used.

Position of human rights organization and legal expert

Human rights activists in Pakistan say that the use of any kind of technology for surveillance needs not only strict scrutiny, but also a plan of action on public debate about it.

Human rights organization Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) spokesperson Mahin Pracha said in a written response that HRCP has no means of confirming such reports that Pakistan is being monitored by a foreign government. or acquiring a hacking tool.’

Such acts of surveillance or hacking, even if used for criminal investigations, represent a serious threat to people’s privacy and their digital governance, the spokesperson said.
He said that there is a need for a public debate on the scope of such actions and the mechanism of strict monitoring of their implications.

Barrister Shoaib Razzaq, an expert in cyber laws and advocate of the Supreme Court, told Independent Urdu that the law allows the phone of an ‘enemy of the state’ to be hacked and tapped.

What is Celebrite and how does it work?

According to Fatehuddin, Celebrite is a private Israeli company whose software is mainly used for mobile forensics or data extraction from mobiles. If the police or any other law enforcement agency comes across a mobile phone that is locked by a password, they can easily unlock it with the help of Celebrity.

Fatehuddin said that the institution connects the locked phone to the computer with the help of a USB cable and then the software accesses all the data inside the phone, including call records, messages, photos, etc.

Interestingly, according to the information provided by Celebrite on its website, Celebrite is prohibited from selling to Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Syria, North Korea, and Venezuela etc.

Celebrity website is not even accessible in Pakistan, so how is Celebrity popular in Pakistan?

In response, Fatehuddin explained that Celebrity sells software to third parties and distributors in other countries, and from there it can be purchased by companies in any country. He said that the price of this software is equal to five to ten thousand US dollars.

He said that when all these institutions work for the sake of profit, all these institutions do not take any legal actions and are not verified much. “If they fall into the cycle of verification, then they are screwed.”

According to a report by the news agency Reuters, the value of Celebrity Company is around 2.4 billion dollars.

What is Pegasus?

Pegasus is also made by NSO, an Israeli company. According to Fatehuddin, Pegasus is something completely different from Celebrite. Celebrity needs to have the phone, but Pegasus is a hacking tool that installs in a phone with a ‘zero click’ and hacks the phone without the owner’s knowledge. Sends it secretly.

Two years ago, there were reports of former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s phone being hacked with the help of Pegasus software. In July 2021, Pakistan asked the United Nations to investigate whether India had hacked Imran Khan’s phone.

Earlier on July 20, 2021, human rights organizations Amnesty International released a report In which it was said that several smartphones were hacked with the help of Pegasus, including a number used by Imran Khan.

Dr. Fateh said that the beauty or danger of Pegasus is that it is ‘zero click’, that is, in all the other tools, a link is sent to the user or a file is sent to the user and that user has to open it, and the user has to open it. Proh will be activated and installed and after that it will work.

According to Fatehuddin, ‘Pegasus is very expensive software, many times more expensive than Celebrity. ‘We are talking about millions of dollars. Moreover, Pegasus doesn’t give you the entire software, but a remote access to it.’

‘Who is the enemy of the state?’

Barrister Shoaib Razzaq, an expert in cyber laws and Supreme Court lawyer, was asked how to interpret ‘who is an enemy of the state and who is allowed to do so’, he replied. I said that ‘this is the flaw in the law that there is no definition of who is the enemy of the state, and the subsidiary bodies of the government are also working by taking advantage of this.’

Quratul Ain Shirazi and Samira Raja contributed to the preparation of this report.