Investigation Uncovers Israeli Team's Decades-Long Effort to Manipulate Elections Globally

Chip giant ASML says insider in China stole data, Royal Mail spurned Lockbit's $80 million ransom demand, SAS hit by paralyzing ransomware attack, Microsoft plugged three zero-days, much more

A bombshell investigation by an international consortium of journalists has uncovered a team of Israeli contractors run by Tal Hanan, a 50-year-old former Israeli special forces operative who now works privately using the pseudonym “Jorge,” who claim to have manipulated more than 30 elections for more than two decades around the world using hacking, sabotage and automated disinformation on social media.

The consortium of journalists that investigated Team Jorge includes reporters from 30 outlets, including Le Monde, Der Spiegel, and El País part of a more comprehensive investigation into the disinformation industry has been coordinated by Forbidden Stories, a French nonprofit whose mission is to pursue the work of assassinated, threatened or jailed reporters.

Hanan told the undercover reporters on hidden cameras that his services, which others describe as “black ops,” were available to intelligence agencies, political campaigns, and private companies that wanted to manipulate public op…