Israel cyber company provided spyware to Myanmar military junta

Israeli company, Cognyte, which is traded on the NASDAQ, won a tender to sell intercept spyware to a Myanmar state-backed telecommunications firm, a month before the military coup in February 2021, according to documents reviewed by Reuters and Israeli Haaretz newspaper on Monday.

The documents show that Cognyte won the tender in December 2020 to supply a spyware system to Myanmar Posts and Telecommunications, a state-owned company controlled by the country’s Communications Ministry.

Haaretz said the documents reveal plans by Myanmar’s regime to install “lawful interception” tools on the networks of all the country’s telecommunications providers. 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.

While installation of the system was scheduled to be completed in June 2021, it is not clear whether it was delivered or if it is operational. Sources in Myanmar told Reuters that the government telecommunications company had tested the system.

In November 2020, a month before the system was acquired, the party of Myanmar leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, won elections by a wide margin, before the army claimed election fraud, signalling that it had no intention of accepting the results. The following February, it staged a coup, arrested Aung San Suu Kyi, as well as ministers and members of parliament. She was later sentenced to 26 years imprisonment.

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According to official United Nations reports, during the protests that followed the military coup, the military junta killed at least 1,600 citizens, arrested 12,000 and executed four pro-democracy activists.

A US State Department report said the junta “regularly monitored private electronic communications through online surveillance; there were numerous reports that the regime monitored pro-democracy supporters … Before the coup, the military built an ‘electronic warfare capability’ and bought surveillance technology, including cell phone-hacking tools to monitor pro-democracy activists.”

Haaretz said Cognyte did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Israel’s Defence Ministry also did not respond to queries by Haaretz, whether Cognyte had requested approval to enter the tender and sell equipment to Myanmar and whether the Ministry had approved the sale.