Barcelona has become the new base of operations for Israeli hacking teams. This has been revealed by an investigation by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, which has identified at least three teams of hackers specialized in finding vulnerabilities in mobile devices that operate from the Catalan capital.
Israel is one of the world’s leading leaders in cybersecurity, surpassed only by the United States, Russia and China. In addition to its military use, companies in the country such as NSO Group sell spy products to governments around the world, such as the intrusive ‘software’ Pegasus, which allows access to all the content of the mobile phone of the person spied on and that has been used by several countries to spy on their political rivals or activists.
According to the Israeli newspaper’s investigation, the transfer of the hackers to Barcelona and other cities in Spain has occurred in the last year and is explained by the restrictions and instability in their country of origin due to the invasion of Gaza and the Israel’s military incursions into Lebanon.
The hackers who move to Barcelona are part of it, explains Haaretzof a new trend in the cybersecurity industry, consisting of the investigation of vulnerabilities in mobile phones and computer devices. That is, more than spyware like Pegasus, the industry now specializes in finding loopholes to attack devices.
According to Haaretzone of the teams now working from Barcelona is made up of former employees of BlueOcean, an offensive cybersecurity company based in Singapore and owned by a former Israeli Air Force officer. Another team, the newspaper adds, is led by the first researcher of the NSO Group, creator of Pegasus, who moved to Spain more than a year ago and founded the company Defense Prime.
Although some of these companies are registered in the United States, the majority of the company’s employees, reveals Haaretzare veterans of Israeli cyber companies. Since the company was founded, 60 Israelis have moved to Spain to work in the Barcelona office.
Several Israeli cybersecurity companies have closed following changes in Israeli regulation, which has now imposed more controls on the local industry. Former members of these firms are now part of new companies specialized in cyber vulnerabilities, which sell products that detect breaches to companies that market spy products to states or government agencies.
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