Israel’s Cognyte supplying surveillance gear to India

NEW DELHI: An Israeli entity with multiple subsidiaries in Germany, Israel and Cyprus, among other countries, and which is operating its research and development centres in Israel, Brazil, Bulgaria and Cyprus, has emerged as among the largest suppliers of intercept and surveillance “gear” to Indian agencies. The intercept “gear” is designed to be used to allow 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.
The Israel-based Cognyte Software Limited, which operates from Herzliya Pituah, an affluent neighbourhood in Tel Aviv, produces and sells software and platforms that broadly cover three fields: “Investigative Analytics” in which it claims that its software fuses massive amounts of data from many different sources; analyses data through predictive and behavioral analytics; and rapidly transforms data into critical insights and prepares a workflow to uncover vital leads and drives collaboration across investigative teams to accelerate investigations and reach faster conclusions and resolutions.
The second set of tools, which the company has classified as “Operational Intelligence Analytics”, is used by security agencies to carry out operational security missions, providing them real-time or “near real-time” insights for successful completion of missions through mobile devices.
As per the company, the last set of tools that it produces is related to “Threat Intelligence Analytics”, which is mostly used to handle cyber threats. It is the second set of tools that uses mobile phones to gather information, which the company has apparently sold in India.
People familiar with developments in the field said that Cognyte was operating in more than 100 countries and has 400 plus government agencies as its client, which means that multiple agencies in a single country were using these tools. Apart from these government clients, its tools were being operated by 600 private companies.
According to the data accessed by this newspaper, more than 80% of the company’s business in 2019 and 2020 was generated through sales of these tools to government agencies. Cognyte does not share the details of its customers with the general public.
The Sunday Guardian reached out to senior officials of Cognyte in India for a detailed response. But none was received till the time this report went to press. The registered officer of the company in India is shown to be 5th floor, Bhikaji Cama Bhawan.
In the $30 billion worth global market that is growing at a rate of 10% every year, the company for the last two-three years, has got the most buyers for its product, while selling more than one third of its product, in the Asia Pacific region, that also includes India.
It had in 2020 sold one of its interception tools to Myanmar, just months before the army coup. In the year ended 2020, the company which has 400 patents to its names, employed approximately 1,100 people in product and R&D roles globally, primarily in Israel, Cyprus, Brazil, Bulgaria, and Romania. Of its total 2,000 employees, about 58% were based in Israel, 25% in Europe, Middle East and Africa, 12% in America with only a hundred employees based in the Asian-Pacific region, from where it gets its most clients.
As per Israeli laws, the company has to support the Israeli government in enhancing its own research and development capabilities, which it has done by helping the Innovation Authority, formerly the Office of the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Economy of the State of Israel.
As per these local laws, the company is restricted from transferring its technologies outside of Israel without permission from the local authorities, which are rarely sought and never given. The said company can sell its products only after receiving a specific export licence for defence related hardware, software, services and know-how exported from Israel.
All the data that is generated from the country that is using the software built by Cognyte also is seen, processed and handled by company officials.
In 2021, the company, which is headed by the 46-year-old Elad Sharon, earned $443.5 million which rose to $474.0 million in 2022. Sharon has been associated with the said company since 1997. Significantly, the company is facing a legal issue since January 2017 for copyright infringement, misappropriation of trade secrets, and breach of contract regarding the patent for a way to intercept calls on cellular phones and intercept them. The said case has been filed by Elad Barkan, who, in 2003, was the first to show that calls made on secure GSM cellular telephone networks could be eavesdropped on. The patent is titled “Cryptanalysis Method and System”.