WhatsApp Messages of Netanyahu Adviser Jonatan Urich Leaked Online

WhatsApp messages attributed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's adviser, Jonatan Urich, were leaked on social media on Sunday. Urich has not yet responded to the alleged leak.

The source who published the correspondence selected chats with seven individuals from a long list of groups and contacts, claiming additional conversations will be published soon. It remains unclear who is behind the publication of Urich's messages.

Recently, Calcalist revealed that Urich connected his personal WhatsApp account to an external service from the United Arab Emirates, allowing full and unencrypted access to sensitive communications. According to the report, the exposure of code for a media tracking tool developed by Urich revealed access details that allowed foreign actors to infiltrate WhatsApp groups and extract confidential information. The service used by Urich is subject to UAE laws, which permit local security authorities access to data and message contents without a court order. However, it cannot be definitively determined if the leak is connected to this security vulnerability.

According to Haaretz, Urich built the tool for the Prime Minister and his wife to monitor media mentions of them in real-time and send alerts to designated WhatsApp groups. Urich developed the tool using Anthropic's Claude AI model, and it was exposed after Urich published the code on the GitHub development platform. Urich's office declined to comment.