Cambridge Analytica is accused of collecting the personal information of 50 million users of the Facebook social network without their consent and would have used it to develop software to predict and influence voter voting during the campaign American election according to the New York Times and the Guardian. Image by Chesnot/Getty Images

By Aiden Pink March 22, 2018

Israeli hackers accessed the private email accounts of two heads of state and offered information to the data analytics team that worked on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, The Guardian reported Wednesday.

The British data firm Cambridge Analytica, which has used information pulled from Facebook users to consult on political campaigns around the world, was working on the reelection campaign of Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 when employees met with Israeli contractors and were offered a USB stick with information on his opponent Muhammadu Buhari, who would go on to win. Cambridge Analytica employees believed that the USB stick contained hacked emails.

Company leaders urged staff to search through the data for incriminating information.

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

“It made everyone feel really uncomfortable,” one source told the Guardian. “They wanted people to load it into their email programs.”

Employees who spoke to the Guardian believed that the material included medical records. “I’m 99% sure of that,” a source said. “Or if they didn’t have his medical records they at least had emails that referred to what was going on.”

That same Israeli team also reportedly obtained information on the opposition leader of the Caribbean nation of St. Kitts and Nevis, Timothy Harris, who is now prime minister.

The CEO of Cambridge Analytica, Alexander Nix, told undercover reporters for Britain’s Channel 4 that they “use some Israeli companies” who are “very effective in intelligence gathering.”

Cambridge Analytica’s parent company denies taking or using stolen personal information. The company is being investigated by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’re near the end of our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we have a very ambitious goal of $127,000 by April 21.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Make a Passover Gift Today!

$90 $180

$360

Other amount