Digital strategist Dennis Itumbi has confessed that he was President William Ruto's aide whose account was hacked by a team of Israeli contractors as reported by The Guardian.
Itumbi has, however, dismissed the hacking as 'inconsequential'.
He said that while the hackers gained access to his Telegram account they did not succeed in their mission.
"I do not use Telegram for any form of communication… When I noticed increased activity on my Telegram account, I decided to mislead the hackers who were interested in political groups," he said.
In an exclusive piece carried by the international medium Wednesday titled-The hacking and disinformation team meddling in elections-there were claims that Telegram accounts of individuals who worked in Ruto's campaign team were penetrated.
In the article, Tal Hanan, a 50-year-old former Israeli Special Forces operative who heads the team of hackers is said to have taken a consortium of investigative journalists through a process of how access to Telegram could be manipulated to sow mischief.
Speaking to Star, Itumbi who is credited with playing a significant role in Ruto's campaigns ahead of the August 9, 2022 poll, confirmed that he was even approached by The Guardian reporters before the article was published.
"The Guardian reporters reached out to me on this article and because I was the victim, I decided to comment before publication of the story," he narrated.
Itumbi explained that having learnt about the intentions of the hackers, he started misleading them.
"I began sharing believable but wrong information about our campaign structures and true to word, the opposition started putting out messages based on the wrong info that I was intentionally sharing to mislead the hackers," Itumbi notes
"For instance in one such conversation, together with others we put up a staged conversation, saying we would not deploy agents and that it was too expensive... But in reality, we were already recruiting agents. It was clear in my mind that those interested in the information were working for our competitors."
"Luckily, they have owned up to their mischief," he says.
Hanan operates under the pseudonym Jorge while his unit describes itself with the codename “Team Jorge”.
The investigation reveals extraordinary details about how disinformation is being weaponised by Team Jorge, which runs a private service offering to covertly meddle in elections without a trace. The group also works for corporate clients.
One of Team Jorge’s key services is a sophisticated software package, Advanced Impact Media Solutions, or Aims. It controls a vast army of thousands of fake social media profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Telegram, Gmail, Instagram and YouTube.
The consortium of journalists that investigated Team Jorge includes reporters from 30 outlets including Le Monde, Der Spiegel and El País.
When reached for a comment about his activities, Jorge said “I deny any wrongdoing.”
According to Hanan, they have manipulated more than 30 elections around the world using hacking, sabotage and automated disinformation on social media.
And, while the hackers, in the report, alleges to have completed 33 presidential-level campaigns, 27 of which were successful, it never worked in Kenya as Ruto went to win the elections.
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