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.”
