Every 90 seconds, an artificial intelligence-assisted program scanned roughly 50 news sources for mentions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his wife, Likud, and political rivals. It was meant to keep his political communications operation ahead of the headlines. Instead, its exposed code has raised uncomfortable questions about the security of Israel’s political inner circle.
Gabriel Colodro reports for The Media Line that longtime Netanyahu adviser Jonatan Urich left the program’s code publicly accessible on GitHub. Among the exposed details were telephone numbers, WhatsApp group identifiers, and access tokens. Separate reporting found that Urich connected his personal WhatsApp account to an outside messaging service, potentially giving it access to private correspondence.
Then, on October 11, purported conversations from Urich’s WhatsApp account surfaced online. Some participants acknowledged particular exchanges, but the authenticity of all the material remains unverified. Urich’s lawyers allege unauthorized access and say some content was altered or fabricated. No public forensic findings have established how the messages were obtained, or whether either of the known exposures played a role.
Cybersecurity professor Yossi Oren sees a wider problem with AI-assisted programming: People can create powerful systems without understanding the access they grant. “This is no longer a phone being hacked. The user is hacking himself,” he said. An authorized outside service can read messages after decryption without defeating WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption.
Cyber intelligence expert Matias Rott explains why political aides are attractive targets. Their exchanges can expose advisers’ influence, personal relationships, and political strategy, even without classified documents. With Israel’s October 27 election approaching, selectively released messages could derail campaigns and fuel controversies.
There is also a separate AI-related disclosure in the Qatargate investigation. Police records reportedly include Urich’s ChatGPT queries about improving Qatar’s image. He denies promoting Qatari interests, and no public evidence connects those records to the WhatsApp leak.
Colodro’s complete investigation examines the security vulnerabilities while carefully separating established facts from unanswered questions. Whoever controls the leaked material may also control which private exchange becomes public next—and when.
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