What did the Gardaí buy from an Israeli spyware company?

Last year An Garda Síochána made payments totalling €278,000 to an Israeli company, Cognyte, which manufactures sophisticated surveillance software.

It is not known exactly what was bought or what it will be used for but the purchase was made under the Office of Government Procurement (OGP) framework. That means other State agencies such as Revenue, Fiosrú and Military Intelligence can use the new Israeli tech.

It is not the first time the State has bought technology – including military technology – from Israel.

Cognyte’s flagship offering is what it calls an “investigations analytics platform”, a powerful piece of software capable of amalgamating masses of data in one place. It uses facial recognition, artificial intelligence and large language models to, in Cognyte’s words, “reveal hidden insights and deeper context” for investigators.

So if that is what the Garda bought, how might the force use it?

The Irish Times Crime and Security Correspondent Conor Gallagher explains.

Gallagher also looks as some of the controversies the Israeli company has been involved in: from Brazil, where it was cited in the trial of disgraced Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, to the Netherlands, where the justice ministry has come under fire for buying a new telephone and data-tapping system for the police from the controversial defence company without informing parliament.

Presented by Bernice Harrison. Produced by Declan Conlon. 

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