Cognyte Software Limited is an Israeli company specialized in interception software.

Cognyte won a tender to sell intercept spyware to a Myanmar state-backed telecommunications firm a month before the Asian nation’s February 2021 military coup, according to documents reviewed by Reuters news agency. The coup has lead to a multi-sided civil war that is still going on in 2026. As of 13 March 2024, at least 50,000 people, including at least 8,000 civilians (570 of whom were children), have been killed by the military government forces and 26,234 individuals have been arrested. The deal was made even though Israel has claimed it stopped defence technology transfers to Myanmar following a 2017 ruling by Israel’s Supreme Court.

Their intercept spyware can give authorities the power to listen in on calls, view text messages and web traffic including emails, and track the locations of users without the assistance of telecom and internet firms. Representatives for Cognyte, Myanmar’s military government and MPT did not respond to multiple Reuters requests for comment. Japan’s KDDI Corp and Sumitomo Corp, which have stakes in MPT, declined to comment, saying they were not privy to details on communication interception. The foreign affairs ministry did not respond to requests for comment about the deal, while the defence ministry declined to comment.

Cognyte has also been under fire for selling surveillance technology to Indonesia, Mexico, and Thailand, according to research compiled by a European Parliament spyware inquiry.

The company was also banned from Facebook in 2021, with Facebook owner Meta stating that Cognyte managed fake accounts to collect data and intelligence on Facebook users, including politicians and journalists, across the world.

The Irish Garda Síochána (local police and security service) made payments totaling €278,000 to Cognyte, while refusing to confirm whether the State uses such technology. Irish Times states “For example, using the software, a garda could pull up the file of a criminal and click on a tab showing all intercepted text message communications involving this person. One tab might show the last time they were caught on CCTV footage while another would list their social media accounts.”

When Cognyte was under the control of its parent company Verint Systems, Indonesian authorities used its products to keep track of members of the LGBT community and religious minorities, according to an investigation by Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

In Azerbaijan, police used it to gather the sexual inclinations of people from their Facebook accounts. Forty-five gay men and transgender women were later arrested and tortured, the newspaper reported.

Norges Bank Investment Management decided to exclude Cognyte from their Government Pension Fund Global, due to unacceptable risk that the company contributes to serious human rights violations.