One of the highest executives of a gargantuan texting contractor has been accused of operating a secret surveillance enterprise, the likes of which offered entry to the corporate’s companion networks in order that governments may spy on numerous customers.

A joint investigation from Bloomberg and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism not too long ago uncovered allegations geared toward Ilja Gorelik, co-founder and chief working officer of Swiss texting agency Mitto AG.

Calling itself a supplier of “omnichannel messaging solutions,” Mitto acts as a third-party SMS contractor for a few of the tech business’s largest corporations. It gives promotional providers through textual content—serving to blast out ads and different kinds of notifications to cellphones everywhere in the world. It additionally allows safe login and two-factor authentication for numerous platforms by means of safety code texting. In addition to having relationships with dozens of telecoms, the corporate has reportedly contracted with the likes of Twitter, Google, WhatsApp, Telegram, TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Slack, amongst others. It reportedly delivers texts to billions of telephones everywhere in the world, together with in locations as far-flung as Afghanistan and Iran.

However, in line with new reporting, the corporate’s COO, Gorelik, has been operating a secret side-business through which he sells entry to Mitto’s networks to personal surveillance corporations, which then promote that entry to authorities spy businesses—permitting them to triangulate and monitor particular customers.

Bloomberg spoke to 4 former Mitto workers, in addition to to safety agency contractors that declare to have labored with Gorelik, all of whom apparently confirmed the chief’s exercise.

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The access to global phone networks that do business with Mitto is said to have been provided through vulnerabilities in a telecom protocol known as SS7. The insecurity of the protocol is fairly well-known. The exploitation of SS7 could allow an attacker to track the physical location of specific phones as well as to redirect text messages and phone calls, Bloomberg reports.

Former employees of at least one company—the Cyprus-based cybersecurity firm TRG Research and Development—went on record to admit that they procured access to Mitto’s networks through Gorelik. The former employees allege that Gorelik personally installed TRG surveillance software on Mitto’s network, enabling clandestine access to its network. According to them, there was “virtually no oversight” of the alleged spying being conducted using Mitto’s network. TRG, which sells data to government agencies for the purposes of fighting crime and “terror,” denied any official relationship with Mitto or Gorelik.

This seems to have gone on for years. According to the whistleblowers, Gorelik first started selling access to Mitto’s networks in 2017. The spying is alleged to have included a 2019 incident that involved the targeting of at least one high-level U.S. State Department official.

If true, these allegations are yet another example of the murky, unethical reaches of the surveillance industry—the likes of which is really having a moment in terms of media coverage.

The Bloomberg report asserts that there is no evidence that any of Mitto’s tech clients (i.e., Google, Twitter, etc.) have been compromised. Gorelik, meanwhile, has denied the allegations, as has Mitto. A representative for Mitto apparently told Bloomberg that it is currently conducting an investigation “to determine if our technology and business has been compromised.”

We reached out to the corporate with a number of requests for remark however haven’t heard again. We will replace this story in the event that they reply.