activists
ISLAMABAD: A chilling exposé has revealed that the Israeli spyware companyIntellexa continues to operate aggressively in Pakistan, deploying itsnotorious Predator tool against human rights defenders despite stringentUnited States sanctions imposed in 2023. The investigation, dubbed the”Intellexa Leaks,” uncovers a web of covert operations, includingzero-click infections via malicious advertisements, that bypass userinteraction to infiltrate devices. This development underscores thepersistent threat of mercenary surveillance technologies to global civilsociety, particularly in nations grappling with political repression.
The bombshell report, jointly produced by journalists Omer Benjakob ofHaaretz, Eliza Triantafillou of Inside Story, Lorenz Naegeli of the WAVResearch Collective, and technical experts from Amnesty International’sSecurity Lab led by Donncha Ó Cearbhaill, draws on leaked internaldocuments spanning 2018 to 2025. These materials expose Intellexa’ssophisticated infection mechanisms, such as the Aladdin system, whichweaponizes online ads to deliver spyware simply by rendering them on atarget’s screen. In Pakistan, this method was allegedly employed in asummer 2025 attack on a prominent human rights lawyer from Balochistanprovince, who received a suspicious WhatsApp link traced to Predator’sinfrastructure.
Balochistan, a region long plagued by ethnic tensions and enforceddisappearances, has seen heightened crackdowns on activists amidIslamabad’s efforts to quell separatist sentiments. The targeted lawyer,whose identity remains protected for security reasons, approached Amnestyafter noticing anomalous device behavior. Forensic analysis confirmed theattempt involved a one-click exploit chain, but the broader leaks revealeven stealthier ad-based vectors that require no user engagement. Thismarks the first documented Predator deployment in Pakistan, raising alarmsabout the tool’s proliferation in South Asia, where diplomatic isolationfrom Israel has not deterred shadowy acquisitions.
Intellexa, founded by former Israeli intelligence officer Tal Dilian, hasfaced global scrutiny for enabling authoritarian regimes to surveildissidents. Despite U.S. Commerce Department blacklisting and assetfreezes, the firm maintains active clients in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, withleaked training videos showing remote access to live surveillancedashboards via unsecured tools like TeamViewer. Google Threat Intelligencecorroborated these findings, attributing 15 zero-day exploits to Intellexasince 2021 and issuing warnings to hundreds of potential victims acrossPakistan, Kazakhstan, Angola, Egypt, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, andTajikistan. Recorded Future’s parallel probe mapped Intellexa’s Dubai-basedshell companies, suggesting sanction evasion through UAE proxies.
The implications for Pakistan are profound. With no formal ties to Israel,the spyware’s entry likely stems from third-party intermediaries,exacerbating domestic surveillance amid ongoing internet shutdowns andmedia curbs. Human rights organizations decry this as a direct assault onprivacy and free expression, echoing the 2023 Predator Files thatimplicated the tool in abuses worldwide. As trials unfold in Greece againstIntellexa executives, calls intensify for international moratoriums onspyware exports.
Pakistan’s government has yet to comment, but civil society groups urgeswift investigations and device audits for at-risk individuals. Thisscandal not only highlights regulatory gaps in the surveillance industrybut also the urgent need for robust digital defenses in vulnerabledemocracies. The Intellexa Leaks serve as a stark reminder thattechnological Pandora’s boxes, once opened, evade easy closure,perpetuating a shadow war on truth-tellers.
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Source:https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2025-12-04/ty-article-magazine/.premium/israeli-spyware-firm-intellexa-owned-by-ex-intel-officer-still-active-amid-us-sanctions/0000019a-e3e8-db35-afbf-ebfcb8bb0000
Source:https://securitylab.amnesty.org/latest/2025/12/intellexa-leaks-predator-spyware-operations-exposed/
Tags: Pakistan, Intellexa, Predator, Amnesty.
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