Omer Benjakob is an investigative journalist for Haaretz focused on the intersection of national security, geopolitics and technology. He covers disinformation, cyber and surveillance for the newspaper, and has participated in a number of international investigations, among them Project Pegasus, and “Team Jorge”/Story Killers, a groundbreaking global undercover investigation into the private market of disinformation market and the digital mercenaries offering election interference as a service.

He was the first journalist to reveal the existence of offensive AdInt firms selling ad-based spyware to states, and the first to expose a spyware firm focused on hacking and altering CCTVs. His investigation into Intellexa's sale of spyware to a militia in Sudan was shortlisted for the EU's European Press Prize for investigative journalism (2023).

He frequently collaborates with Amnesty International and Citizen Lab, recently working with the letter to expose an Israeli influence operation in Iran that utilized AI to try to spur regime change, and covers regular disinformation efforts in and against Israel. He is also a researcher and his writing on Wikipedia has been published in Wired UK, the Columbia Journalism Review and MIT Press, as well as academic journals.

Born in New York and raised in Tel Aviv, he lives in Jaffa with his wife and son. He teaches in a local college in Israel. He is also an associate research fellow at the Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (LPI) in Paris, a research institute affiliated with the Université Paris Cité focused on open science.

Photo credit: Air Meyuhas

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