Intellexa: Ill Intent or Israeli Marketing Failure?
September 19, 2024
This essay is the work of a dumb dinobaby. No smart software required.
Most online experts are not familiar with the specialized software sector. Most of the companies in this intelware niche try to maintain a low profile. Publicity in general media, trade magazines, or TikTok is not desired. However, a couple of Israel-anchored vendors have embraced the Madison Avenue way. Indications of unwanted publicity surface in sources rarely given much attention by the poohbahs who follow more clickable topics like Mr. Musk’s getting into doo doo in Brazil or Mr. Zuck’s antics in Australia and the UK.
You know your marketing and PR firm has created an issue which allows management to ask, “Should we switch to a new marketing and PR firm?” Will the executives make a switch or go for a crisis management outfit instead? Thanks, MSFT Copilot. Interesting omission of the word “a”, but that’s okay. Your team is working on security and a couple of other pressing issues. Grammar is the least of some Softies’ worries.
The Malta Times (yep, it is an island with an interesting history and a number of business districts which house agents and lawyers who do fascinating work) reported on March 6, 2024, that:
The Maltese government has initiated the process of the deprivation of the Maltese citizenship of a person who appeared on a US sanctions list on Tuesday (March 5, 2024).
The individual, according to the write up, was “Ex-Israeli intelligence officer and current CEO of cyber spyware firm Intellexa.” The write up points out:
Tal Dilian was added to the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control Specially Designated Nationals List on Tuesday (March 5, 2024) in connection with sanctions by the US Treasury on members of the Intellexa Spyware Consortium.
The Malta Times noted:
According to the [U.S.] State Department, “Dilian is the founder of the Intellexa Consortium and is the architect behind its spyware tools. The consortium is a complex international web of decentralized companies controlled either fully or partially by Dilian, including through Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou. “Hamou is a corporate off-shoring specialist who has provided managerial services to the Intellexa Consortium, including renting office space in Greece on behalf of Intellexa S.A. Hamou holds a leadership role at Intellexa S.A., Intellexa Limited, and Thalestris Limited,” said the State Department.
I saw a news release from the US Department of the Treasury titled “Treasury Sanctions Enablers of the Intellexa Commercial Spyware Consortium.” That statement said:
Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned five individuals and one entity associated with the Intellexa Consortium for their role in developing, operating, and distributing commercial spyware technology that presents a significant threat to the national security of the United States. These designations complement concerted U.S. government actions against commercial spyware vendors, including previous sanctions against individuals and entities associated with the Intellexa Consortium; the Department of Commerce’s addition of commercial spyware vendors to the Entity List; and the Department of State’s visa ban policy targeting those who misuse or profit from the misuse of commercial spyware, subsequently exercised on thirteen individuals.
Some of these people include:
- Felix Bitzios (Bitzios), beneficial owner of an Intellexa Consortium
- Andrea Nicola Constantino Hermes Gambazzi, the beneficial owner of Thalestris Limited which holds distribution rights to the Predator spyware and has been involved in processing transactions on behalf of other entities within the Intellexa Consortium.
- Merom Harpaz, a manager of Intellexa S.A.
- Panagiota Karaoli, the director of multiple Intellexa Consortium entities that are controlled by or are a subsidiary of Thalestris Limited.
- Artemis Artemiou (Artemiou), the general manager and member of the board of Cytrox Holdings Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag (Cytrox Holdings), a member of the Intellexa Consortium
- Aliada Group Inc, a British Virgin Islands-based company and member of the Intellexa Consortium
Chatter about Intellexa’s specialized software has been making noise since
In 2021, the firm used this headline on its Web site to catch attention, not of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, but other entities:
More than intelligence gathering networks — Intellexa’s innovative insight platform
And statements like
Create insights, win the digital race
The lingo is important because it is marketing oriented. Plus, in 2021, the firm’s positioning emphasized Tal Dilian’s technology. (Some of the features reminded me of NSO Group’s Pegasus with a dash of other Israeli-developed specialized software systems.
How has the marketing worked out? Since Mr. Dilian became involved with a failing specialized software developer called Cytrox in Cyprus, Intellexa matured into an “alliance.” The reinvigorated outfit operated from Athens, Greece. By 2021, Intellexa was attracting attention from several governments related to officials’ whose devices had been enhanced with the cleverly named Predator software.
That marketing expertise has put Intellexa and its “affiliates” in the spotlight. From a PR point of view, mission accomplished. The problem appears to be that one PR and marketing success has created a sticky wicket for the company. An unintended consequence is that the specialized software vendors find themselves becoming increasingly well known. From my point of view, the failure to keep certain specialized software capabilities secret has been a surprising trend.
My hypothesis is that because the systems and methods for obtaining information for legal purposes has become more widely known, more people are thinking about how they too could obtain information from an entity. One may criticize what government entities do, but these entities (in theory) are operating within a formal structure. Use of specialized software, therefore, operates within a structure which has rules, regulations, norms for conduct, and similar knobs and dials. When the capabilities are available to anyone via a Telegram download, certain types of risk go up. That’s why I am not in favor of specialized software companies practicing the Israel developed NSO Group and Intellexa style of marketing.
But the mobile surveillance cat is out of the bag. And I have been around long enough to know what happens when cats are turned loose. They market, make noise, and make more cats. And some technology can make a mobile device behave in unexpected ways or go bang.
Stephen E Arnold, September 19, 2024
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