Israel's Cognyte won tender to sell intercept spyware to Myanmar before coup -documents

Verint Systems

15/01/2023 23:00

(Repeats Sunday item with no change to text)
    By Fanny Potkin and Poppy McPherson
       SINGAPORE, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Israel's Cognyte Software
Ltd  CGNT.O  won a tender to sell intercept spyware to a Myanmar
state-backed telecommunications firm a month before the Asian
nation's February 2021 military coup, according to documents
reviewed by Reuters.
    The deal was made even though Israel has claimed it stopped
defence technology transfers to Myanmar following a 2017 ruling
by Israel's Supreme Court, according to a legal complaint
recently filed with Israel's attorney general and disclosed on
Sunday.
        While the ruling was subjected to a rare gag order at
the request of the state and media cannot cite the verdict,
Israel's government has publicly stated on numerous occasions
that defence exports to Myanmar are banned.
    The complaint, led by high-profile Israeli human rights
lawyer Eitay Mack who spearheaded the campaign for the Supreme
Court ruling, calls for a criminal investigation into the deal.
It accuses Cognyte and unnamed defence and foreign ministry
officials who supervise such deals of "aiding and abetting
crimes against humanity in Myanmar."
    The complaint was filed on behalf of more than 60 Israelis,
including a former speaker of the house as well as prominent
activists, academics and writers. 
    The documents about the deal, provided to Reuters and Mack
by activist group Justice for Myanmar, are a January 2021 letter
with attachments from Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications (MPT)
to local regulators that list Cognyte as the winning vendor for
intercept technology and note the purchase order was issued "by
30th Dec 2020". 
    Intercept spyware can give authorities the power to listen
in on calls, view text messages and web traffic including
emails, and track the locations of users without the assistance
of telecom and internet firms.
    Representatives for Cognyte, Myanmar’s military government
and MPT did not respond to multiple Reuters requests for
comment. Japan's KDDI Corp  9433.T  and Sumitomo Corp  8053.T ,
which have stakes in MPT, declined to comment, saying they were
not privy to details on communication interception. 
    Israel's attorney general did not respond to requests for
comment about the complaint. The foreign affairs ministry did
not respond to requests for comment about the deal, while the
defence ministry declined to comment.
    Two people with knowledge of Myanmar’s intercept plans
separately told Reuters the Cognyte system was tested by MPT.
They declined to be identified for fear of retribution by
Myanmar's junta.
    MPT uses intercept spyware, a source with direct knowledge
of the matter and three people briefed on the issue told Reuters
although they did not identify the vendor. Reuters was unable to
determine whether the sale of Cognyte intercept technology to
MPT was finalised.
        Even before the coup, public concern had mounted in
Israel about the country's defence exports to Myanmar after a
brutal 2017 crackdown by the military on the country's Rohingya
population while Aung San Suu Kyi's government was in power. The
crackdown prompted the petition led by Mack that asked the
Supreme Court to ban arms exports to Myanmar.
    Since the coup, the junta has killed thousands of people
including many political opponents, according to the United
Nations.
    COGNYTE UNDER FIRE
    Many governments around the world allow for what are
commonly called ‘lawful intercepts’ to be used by law
enforcement agencies to catch criminals but the technology is
not ordinarily employed without any kind of legal process,
cybersecurity experts have said.
    According to industry executives and activists previously
interviewed by Reuters, Myanmar's junta is using invasive
telecoms spyware without legal safeguards to protect human
rights.
    Mack said Cognyte's participation in the tender contradicts
statements made by Israeli officials after the Supreme court
ruling that no security exports had been made to Myanmar. 
    While intercept spyware is typically described as "dual-use"
technology for civilian and defence purposes, Israeli law states
that "dual-use" technology is classified as defence equipment. 
    Israeli law also requires companies exporting
defence-related products to seek licenses for export and
marketing when doing deals. The legal complaint said any
officials who granted Cognyte licenses for Myanmar deals should
be investigated. Reuters was unable to determine whether Cognyte
obtained such licenses.
    Around the time of the 2020 deal, the political situation in
Myanmar was tense with the military disputing the results of an
election won by Suu Kyi.
    Norway's Telenor  TEL.OL , previously one of the biggest
telecoms firms in Myanmar before withdrawing from the country
last year, also said in a Dec. 3, 2020 briefing and statement
that it was concerned about Myanmar authorities’ plans for a
lawful intercept due to insufficient legal safeguards.
    Nasdaq-listed Cognyte was spun off in February 2021 from
Verint Systems Inc  VRNT.O , a pioneering giant in Israel's
cybersecurity industry. 
    Cognyte, which had $474 million in annual revenue for its
last financial year, was also banned from Facebook in 2021.
Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc  META.O  said in a report
Cognyte "enables managing fake accounts across social media
platforms".
    Meta said its investigation identified Cognyte customers in
a range of countries such as Kenya, Mexico and Indonesia and
their targets included journalists and politicians. It did not
identify the customers or the targets. 
    Meta did not respond to a request for further comment.
        Norway’s sovereign wealth fund last month dropped
Cognyte from its portfolio, saying states said to be customers
of its surveillance products and services "have been accused of
extremely serious human rights violations". The fund did not
name any states. 
    Cognyte has not responded publicly to the claims made by
Meta or Norway's sovereign wealth fund.     
 (Reporting by Fanny Potkin in Singapore & Poppy McPherson in
Bangkok; Additional reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka in Tokyo and
Dan Williams in Tel Aviv; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)
 ((Fanny.Potkin@thomsonreuters.com;))