Latest news with #Unit8200
Arab News
a day ago
- Arab News
Microsoft investigates ties with IDF after investigation reveals mass surveillance program
LONDON: Tech giant Microsoft is investigating how an elite Israeli military intelligence unit is using its Azure cloud service after an investigation revealed extensive ties between the two entities. There are mounting concerns that Israeli staffers working at Microsoft's facility in the country may have concealed major details from upper management about the nature of the sensitive military collaboration, The Guardian reported on Saturday. Unit 8200, Israel's military surveillance agency, is broadly comparable to the National Security Agency in the US. Through its former head, who resigned in the wake of the Hamas attack of Oct. 7, 2023, the unit carried out extensive efforts to migrate data to Microsoft's Azure cloud storage service. It was part of a broader plan to execute mass surveillance of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories, as revealed by a joint investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call. Unit 8200 chiefs aimed to intercept and record a million phone calls per hour from across the Occupied Territories, using the information to develop an extensive archive and history of Palestinian day-to-day life. Sources from the unit who spoke to the investigation said some of the data gathered from the intercepted calls was used to identify targets for strikes in Gaza. Now, senior executives from Microsoft are reportedly assessing the nature of information held by Unit 8200 on their servers. Sources familiar with the situation told The Guardian that Microsoft's leadership is deeply concerned that Israel-based staff may have hidden key details about their relationship with Unit 8200, and how the surveillance operation uses data stored on Azure. In May, Microsoft claimed in a review of its relationship with the Israel Defense Forces that there was 'no evidence to date' that Azure had been 'used to target or harm people' in Gaza. That claim, however, is understood to have been based on assurances from Microsoft's Israel-based staff. But senior executives at its US headquarters are beginning to doubt the accuracy of the information provided to them by Israeli staff, The Guardian reported. They are also questioning whether Israeli employees may have felt more bound by their national loyalties than to Microsoft, causing them to conceal key information on behalf of the military. The Guardian, using leaked documents from Microsoft, identified several of the tech firm's Israel-based employees who were involved in managing projects with Unit 8200. All had previously posted online that they had served in, or were reservists for, the elite unit. Microsoft has yet to launch another formal review into its ties to the Israeli military. A spokesperson said the company 'takes these allegations seriously, as shown by our previous independent investigation. 'As we receive new information, we're committed to making sure we have a chance to validate any new data and take any needed action.'
The Guardian
a day ago
- Business
- The Guardian
Six killed and dozens wounded by Israeli army while collecting aid, says Gaza civil defence – Middle East crisis live
Update: Date: 2025-08-09T09:50:50.000Z Title: Content: Microsoft is investigating how Israel's military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, is using its Azure cloud storage platform, amid concerns the company's staff in Israel may have concealed key details about its work on sensitive military projects. Senior executives are scrambling to assess what data Unit 8200 holds in Azure after a Guardian investigation revealed how the spy agency has used the cloud platform to store a vast collection of intercepted Palestinian mobile phone calls. The joint investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call found Unit 8200 has used a customised and segregated area within Azure to store recordings of millions of calls made each day in Gaza and the West Bank. There are concerns that the tech company's Israel-based staff may have concealed key details of work, read the full piece here: Update: Date: 2025-08-09T09:43:31.000Z Title: Content: Gaza's civil defence agency said at least 10 people were killed across the Palestinian territory on Saturday, including civilians who were waiting to collect aid. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that at least six people were killed and 30 wounded after Israeli troops targeted civilians assembling near an aid point in central Gaza. It comes after, early Friday, the Israeli security cabinet approved plans to launch major operations to seize Gaza City, triggering a wave of outrage across the globe. Despite the backlash and rumours of dissent from Israeli military top brass, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remained defiant over the decision. In a post on social media late Friday, Netanyahu said 'we are not going to occupy Gaza - we are going to free Gaza from Hamas'. Netanyahu faces mounting pressure to secure a ceasefire to bring the territory's more than two million people back from the brink of famine and free the hostages held by Palestinian militants. Meanwhile: The worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel's plans to expand military control over the enclave have pushed Germany to curb arms exports to Israel, a historically fraught step for Berlin driven by a growing public outcry. Conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz, hitherto a staunchly pro-Israel leader, made the announcement on Friday arguing that Israel's actions would not achieve its stated war goals of eliminating Hamas militants or bringing Israeli hostages home. The UN Security Council announced an emergency meeting on Israel's plans was rescheduled to 10am EDT on Sunday (3pm BST) after originally being scheduled to take place at 3pm EDT (8pm BST) on Saturday. The UN Mission of Panama, which holds the council presidency this month, provided no details, but Saturday is the Jewish Sabbath and Israel is certain to want to speak at the meeting. The efforts for a new ceasefire have the backing of major Arab Gulf monarchies, according to two officials who spoke to AP anonymously due to the sensitivity of the discussions. One is involved directly in the deliberations and the second was briefed on the efforts. The monarchies are concerned about further regional destabilization if Israel fully reoccupies Gaza, the officials said. A senior Hamas official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to brief the media, said the group has yet to receive details on the latest efforts to revive ceasefire talks.
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
Microsoft investigates Israeli military's use of Azure cloud storage
Microsoft is investigating how Israel's military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, is using its Azure cloud storage platform, amid concerns the company's staff in Israel may have concealed key details about its work on sensitive military projects. Senior executives are scrambling to assess what data Unit 8200 holds in Azure after a Guardian investigation revealed how the spy agency has used the cloud platform to store a vast collection of intercepted Palestinian mobile phone calls. The joint investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call found Unit 8200 has used a customised and segregated area within Azure to store recordings of millions of calls made each day in Gaza and the West Bank. According to Unit 8200 sources interviewed as part of the investigation, intelligence drawn from the enormous repository of phone calls held in the cloud has been used to research and identify bombing targets in Gaza. Published on Wednesday, the report has sparked concerns among Microsoft's leadership about whether some of its Israel-based employees have been fully transparent about their knowledge of how Unit 8200 uses Azure, sources familiar with the situation said. According to the sources, an internal effort is now under way to determine the nature of the information being housed in Microsoft's datacentres and re-examine how it is being used by the Israeli military in its war on Gaza. In May, Microsoft said a review into its relationship with the military found 'no evidence to date' that Azure had been 'used to target or harm people' in Gaza. The review's findings are understood to have relied in part on assurances the company received from Israel-based staff. However, in recent days some senior executives at the company's US headquarters have raised doubts about the veracity of the information received from some of the employees in Israel who manage the company's relationship with the military. One of the sources familiar with internal conversations said executives had been unable to verify some of the information provided by staff in Israel, and had questioned whether employees may have felt more bound to their country's military rather than to their employer. Using leaked Microsoft documents, the Guardian has identified several employees involved in managing projects with Unit 8200 who have previously shared online that they have served in or are reservists of the elite eavesdropping unit, which is equivalent in its remit to the US National Security Agency. Despite concerns raised by executives in recent days, the company has not yet launched the kind of formal review it conducted earlier this year into its work with the Israeli military. The review was prompted by reporting by the Guardian and others about Israel's reliance on Microsoft technology during its Gaza offensive. A Microsoft spokesperson said the company 'takes these allegations seriously, as shown by our previous independent investigation. As we receive new information, we're committed to making sure we have a chance to validate any new data and take any needed action.' According to the leaked files reviewed by the Guardian, Microsoft – including senior executives – was aware Unit 8200 planned to move large volumes of sensitive and classified intelligence data into Azure as the company began working with the unit in 2021 to add advanced security measures within the cloud platform. However, the company has insisted its executives were not aware Azure was being used by Unit 8200 to store the content of intercepted Palestinian calls. 'We have no information related to the data stored in the customer's cloud environment,' a spokesperson said earlier this week. In a statement issued by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) after publication of the investigation, a spokesperson said: 'We appreciate Microsoft's support to protect our cybersecurity. We confirm that Microsoft is not and has not been working with the IDF on the storage or processing of data.' Several Microsoft sources said the IDF's statement was viewed with surprise by the company's leadership since it is not a secret it provides cloud storage to the military under contracts with Israel's defence ministry. Following the revelations about Unit 8200's reliance on Microsoft, a worker-led group, No Azure for Apartheid (Noaa), issued a series of demands, including that the company cut off and 'make all ties to the Israeli military publicly known'. Abdo Mohamed, an organizer with Noaa, who was fired by the company last year, said Microsoft's chief executive, Satya Nadella, and other executives 'claim they are unaware of how their company colluded with the Israeli regime to profit from Palestinian suffering while being the very ones who committed Microsoft to this partnership in 2021'.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
Microsoft investigates Israeli military's use of Azure cloud storage
Microsoft is investigating how Israel's military surveillance agency, Unit 8200, is using its Azure cloud storage platform, amid concerns the company's staff in Israel may have concealed key details about its work on sensitive military projects. Senior executives are scrambling to assess what data Unit 8200 holds in Azure after a Guardian investigation revealed how the spy agency has used the cloud platform to store a vast collection of intercepted Palestinian mobile phone calls. The joint investigation with the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call found Unit 8200 has used a customised and segregated area within Azure to store recordings of millions of calls made each day in Gaza and the West Bank. According to Unit 8200 sources interviewed as part of the investigation, intelligence drawn from the enormous repository of phone calls held in the cloud has been used to research and identify bombing targets in Gaza. Published on Wednesday, the report has sparked concerns among Microsoft's leadership about whether some of its Israel-based employees have been fully transparent about their knowledge of how Unit 8200 uses Azure, sources familiar with the situation said. According to the sources, an internal effort is now under way to determine the nature of the information being housed in Microsoft's datacentres and re-examine how it is being used by the Israeli military in its war on Gaza. In May, Microsoft said a review into its relationship with the military found 'no evidence to date' that Azure had been 'used to target or harm people' in Gaza. The review's findings are understood to have relied in part on assurances the company received from Israel-based staff. However, in recent days some senior executives at the company's US headquarters have raised doubts about the veracity of the information received from some of the employees in Israel who manage the company's relationship with the military. One of the sources familiar with internal conversations said executives had been unable to verify some of the information provided by staff in Israel, and had questioned whether employees may have felt more bound to their country's military rather than to their employer. Using leaked Microsoft documents, the Guardian has identified several employees involved in managing projects with Unit 8200 who have previously shared online that they have served in or are reservists of the elite eavesdropping unit, which is equivalent in its remit to the US National Security Agency. Despite concerns raised by executives in recent days, the company has not yet launched the kind of formal review it conducted earlier this year into its work with the Israeli military. The review was prompted by reporting by the Guardian and others about Israel's reliance on Microsoft technology during its Gaza offensive. A Microsoft spokesperson said the company 'takes these allegations seriously, as shown by our previous independent investigation. As we receive new information, we're committed to making sure we have a chance to validate any new data and take any needed action.' According to the leaked files reviewed by the Guardian, Microsoft – including senior executives – was aware Unit 8200 planned to move large volumes of sensitive and classified intelligence data into Azure as the company began working with the unit in 2021 to add advanced security measures within the cloud platform. However, the company has insisted its executives were not aware Azure was being used by Unit 8200 to store the content of intercepted Palestinian calls. 'We have no information related to the data stored in the customer's cloud environment,' a spokesperson said earlier this week. In a statement issued by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) after publication of the investigation, a spokesperson said: 'We appreciate Microsoft's support to protect our cybersecurity. We confirm that Microsoft is not and has not been working with the IDF on the storage or processing of data.' Several Microsoft sources said the IDF's statement was viewed with surprise by the company's leadership since it is not a secret it provides cloud storage to the military under contracts with Israel's defence ministry. Following the revelations about Unit 8200's reliance on Microsoft, a worker-led group, No Azure for Apartheid (Noaa), issued a series of demands, including that the company cut off and 'make all ties to the Israeli military publicly known'. Abdo Mohamed, an organizer with Noaa, who was fired by the company last year, said Microsoft's chief executive, Satya Nadella, and other executives 'claim they are unaware of how their company colluded with the Israeli regime to profit from Palestinian suffering while being the very ones who committed Microsoft to this partnership in 2021'.
Indian Express
2 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
‘They use it to find an excuse': Israel is using Microsoft's Cloud to spy on Palestinians — and bomb them
Anything a Palestinian says can be used against them, quite literally. A phone call to a relative, a text to a friend, a message in the family group chat — any of those could be intercepted, analysed, and marked as suspicious by an Israeli military surveillance programme, built in part with Microsoft's cloud technology, and used as justification to bomb an area. A recent investigation by The Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call reveals how Israel's elite cyber intelligence unit, Unit 8200, uses Microsoft's Azure cloud platform to store and process intercepted phone calls and texts from Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. Those calls are used not just for surveillance but for planning airstrikes. Unit 8200 has developed an AI tool, reportedly similar to ChatGPT, trained on these massive data troves. It can answer questions about individuals, offer insights from thousands of conversations, and flag potential targets. According to sources familiar with the system, this AI is being used to shape operations, justify detentions, and even assist in selecting bombing targets — sometimes based on who was near someone of interest. Israel has always intercepted Palestinian communications. But under this system, Unit 8200 stores all Palestinian phone calls for at least a month, allowing them to retroactively examine anyone's past conversations. The system began taking shape in 2021, when Unit 8200's commander, Yossi Sariel, met with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at the company's campus in Redmond. Sariel, who later resigned after the October 7 intelligence failure, pitched a plan to move Israeli military intelligence into the Azure cloud. Nadella reportedly backed the idea, telling Sariel: 'Microsoft is committed to providing resources to support.' Internal records, seen by The Guardian, show Nadella encouraged Unit 8200 to move up to 70 per cent of its data, including sensitive intelligence, into Microsoft's cloud. Microsoft now claims Nadella only attended the meeting for ten minutes and was unaware of the data's nature. A spokesperson said: 'We are not aware of Azure being used for the storage of such data.' But The Guardian obtained leaked Microsoft documents and spoke to eleven sources in the company and Israeli intelligence. They confirm that Azure has hosted massive quantities of Palestinian surveillance data — up to 11,500 terabytes, equivalent to 200 million hours of audio, some of it stored in Microsoft data centres in the Netherlands and Ireland. Sariel's vision, following a wave of lone-wolf Palestinian attacks in 2015, was to stop selective surveillance and instead monitor everyone. One system, still in use today, scans Palestinian text messages and flags ones containing 'suspicious' words like 'weapon' or 'death.' Another, nicknamed 'noisy message,' assigns a threat rating to every message sent in the West Bank. 'When they need to arrest someone and there isn't a good enough reason to do so, that's where they find the excuse,' said one Unit 8200 source to the Guardian. In Gaza, sources say the Azure-based system has been directly used to prepare airstrikes. Before hitting a target in a crowded area, officers examine recent calls made in the vicinity. Microsoft has said that its technology must not be used to identify bombing targets. But sources in Unit 8200 say that's exactly what is happening. Microsoft's ties to the Israeli military have sparked employee protests. At a conference in May, one employee interrupted Nadella's keynote yelling, 'how about you show how Israeli war crimes are powered by Azure?' After The Guardian exposed the company's role in January, Microsoft launched a review. The company has maintained it found 'no evidence to date' that its systems were used to harm civilians. But intelligence officers familiar with the system insist otherwise. They say it's helped kill thousands, including civilians and children. As of now, Microsoft continues to provide Unit 8200 with cloud infrastructure. Azure remains a 'mission-critical' part of Israel's surveillance machine, powering an AI-driven programme that listens to Palestinians, stores their voices, analyses their words, and sometimes helps choose who lives or dies.
