Israeli company delivers spyware to Myanmar a month before military coup

2023: Israeli company delivers spyware to Myanmar a month before military coup

In mid-January 2023, an Israeli company Cognyte won a tender state for a telecommunications company Myanmar to supply a cyber system designed to monitor and spy on all types of user messages.

Because of this contract, a lawsuit was sent to the court. Its authors demand a criminal investigation of the transaction. In it, Cognyte and unnamed Israeli Ministry of Defense and Foreign Affairs officials overseeing such proposals are accused of "aiding and abetting crimes against humanity in Myanmar." The complaint was filed on behalf of more than 60 Israelis, including a former House speaker, as well as prominent activists, educators and writers. The deal documents, provided to Reuters and activist group Justice for Myanmar, are a January 2021 letter with attachments from Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MP&T) to local regulators.

Cognite wins tender for Myanmar state telecoms company to supply cyber system designed to monitor and spy on all types of user messages

Intercepting spyware and advertising programs can give authorities the ability to eavesdrop on calls, view text messages and network visitors along with email, and monitor customer territories without the help of telecommunications and web corporations. Two people with information about Myanmar's plans to intercept told Reuters that the Cognyte system had been reviewed by MP & T. They declined to give their names, fearing retaliation from Myanmar's junta.

MP&T uses spyware and advertising to intercept, a source with direct information on the matter and three people with knowledge of the issue told Reuters, though they did not identify the seller. Myanmar's junta uses invasive spyware and advertising programs for telecommunications without any authorized human rights safeguards, according to trade executives and activists previously interviewed by Reuters. Mack was told that Cognyte's participation in the tender contradicts statements by Israeli officers made after the Supreme Court's decision that no protective equipment was exported to Myanmar.

While the interception of spyware and advertising programs is often described as a "dual-use" expertise for civilian and defense functions, Israeli law states that the software in question is rated as defense equipment. Israeli law also requires corporations exporting defense-related goods to obtain export and advertising and marketing licenses when executing offers. Officials who gave Cognyte licenses to supply Myanmar should be investigated, the complaint said. Reuters could not find out whether Cognyte received such licenses.

The US and the European Union imposed an arms embargo on Myanmar, but Israel refused to stop selling it arms during the open rule of the military junta. Only after the massacre, which was staged by the military junta, the supply of defense goods to Myanmar was stopped by Israel in 2018, after the decision of the Israeli Supreme Court of 2017.^[1]

Notes