An Israeli company has offered for sale, for four years, software capable of hacking and taking control of security cameras. It counts several European countries among its customers.
Israel continues to be the cradle of ever more intrusive, ever more fearsome cyber espionage champions. December 26, national daily Hareetz portrays Toka, a company specializing in taking control of security cameras. The software is able to search for devices within a defined perimeter, enter the computer system and observe live, without the agents noticing that a new spectator has infiltrated.
Founded in 2018 and run by a former prime minister — Ehud Barak — along with a former national cybersecurity chief, the company has offices in Tel Aviv and Washington. It only works with clients or state organizations, mostly in the West. According to internal documents, in 2021 Toka signed contracts with the State of Israel worth $6 million.
In the game ” Where do we work on the company’s website, a point is placed in France. The company would therefore potentially have concluded a contract in France. The identity of the French customer is not communicated.
A tool capable of tracking a vehicle via its plate
In the files viewed by Hareetz, Toka offers its customers to access security cameras and then target cars through the images. Concretely, it is a question of following a vehicle and noting its movements thanks to its plate. We forget the cameras in our daily life, but these are installed in every car park, service station, hotel or tourist establishment.
The worst part of this story is that the software would be able to modify the recordings. This option would thus give the possibility to a government to tamper with images to modify the truth.
Unlike NSO’s famous Pegasus or Intellexa’s Predator, this spying tool does not leave a digital footprint on infected devices. A formidable asset, which Hareetz found by consulting technical documents with the help of an IT expert. In short, the perfect product to interfere everywhere, without noise.
