Circles
SS7 phone location and interception firm; NSO Group affiliate founded by Tal Dilian
| Circles
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Private (merged into NSO family) |
| Founded | 2008 |
| Founder(s) | Tal Dilian |
| Industry | Telecom interception / SS7 surveillance |
| Parent | Affiliated with NSO Group (Francisco Partners acquisition/merger reported) |
Circles (Circles Technologies) is a surveillance firm that reportedly exploits weaknesses in the global mobile phone system (including SS7) to snoop on calls, texts and phone location. Citizen Lab in December 2020 described Circles as affiliated with NSO Group, which develops Pegasus spyware, and used Internet scanning to identify Circles deployments in at least 25 countries.[1]
Dilian and the NSO family
Ctech has described Circles Technologies as "another surveillance company co-founded by Tal Dilian," and Dilian as "formerly the head of the Israeli military's intelligence directorate's tech unit."[2] The same article reported that Circles was acquired in 2014 by Francisco Partners and merged into NSO Group, in which Francisco Partners then held a majority stake.[2] Citizen Lab independently stated that Circles "is affiliated with NSO Group."[1] Dilian later founded the Intellexa consortium (Predator spyware).
Clients (Citizen Lab scanning)
Citizen Lab assessed that governments of at least 25 countries were likely Circles customers, including Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Chile, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, Serbia, Thailand, the UAE, Vietnam, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In some cases it attributed deployments to particular agencies (for example Thailand's Internal Security Operations Command and the UAE Supreme Council on National Security).[1]
See also
- Tal Dilian
- NSO Group
- Intellexa
- Ability Inc
- Cyber and tech firms founded by ex Unit 8200 or occupation forces veterans
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Bill Marczak et al., Running in Circles: Uncovering the Clients of Cyberespionage Firm Circles, Citizen Lab, 1 December 2020.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Omer Kabir, High Profile Spy Companies Are Damaging Israel's Image, Ctech, 20 November 2019.