"Tahakom"; Bin Nayef’s Group That is Dominated Now by Saudi Crown Prince
The "Tahakom" group brings together large companies, most notably the Saudi Company for Comprehensive Technical and Security Control, founded by former Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who is currently being held by the new Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Bin Salman took control of the company specialized in the tasks of analyzing big data, and made it as part of his war within the royal family to establish his authority and influence in his efforts to the Palace of Al-Yamama in Riyadh as a waiting monarch.
"Tahakom" has become one of Ibn Salman's most important weapons, as part of his aspirations to develop cybertechnique, big data processing, as well as other tasks in tracking his opponents and dissidents abroad.
Prince's Arm
On March 10, 2021, the French intelligence magazine Intelligence Online published its report on Saudi Arabia's "Tahakom" as the crown prince's spearhead toward breaking into big data.
"After controlling companies based on Interior Ministry contracts, (Tahakom) began launching huge contracts, with the state-owned cybertech company releasing its first big data processing tool tenders, and several Western companies bidding for the project," the French magazine said.
"The new company (under which 10 subsidiaries are governed) is headed by Omar bin Mohammed al-Fadhil, and is managed by technology controller Abdul Aziz al-Nuweiser, who previously worked for al-Alam Information Security Company, owned by former Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, moving forward in the cyber field, the preferred sector of Bin Salman," it said.
"In addition to the usual services provided to government ministries in the field of cybersecurity and tracking, the company has also branched out into the big data and data analysis sector," said Intelligence Online.
"I have recently begun to develop a twitter-based software dedicated to analyzing the impact on Twitter of the Crown Prince's preferred social media platform, while the CyberSecurity Center of the National Cyber Security Authority, which in turn belongs to the Ministry of Interior, as well as the National Information Center, attached to the Head of State Security, intelligence services, remain the company's main customers (Tahakom)," it said.
On January 3, 2018, the Public Investment Fund headed by bin Salman included (Tahakom) with the aim of controlling companies formerly associated with Mohammed bin Nayef, including SKAB Saudi Holdings, Alpha Star Aviation Services and Tech Control.
The Story of "Tahakom"
The Saudi Comprehensive Technical and Security Control Company (TUCM) is a subsidiary of The Control Investment Company, which was established in early September 2015 and is based in Riyadh and operates in all regions of the Kingdom.
But the story of the company's founding goes back years during the reign of the late Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, when the then Interior Minister, Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, was entrusted with counter-terrorism tasks and protecting the family from its opponents.
On July 6, 2020, American writer David Ignatius published an article in The Washington Post entitled "The Dazzling Rise and Tragic Collapse of Muhammad bin Nayef," in which he talked about a governing company and the beginning of its work.
"In May 2003, when al-Qaeda bombers attacked a foreign residential compound in Riyadh, killing 35 people, including 10 Americans, George Tenet (CIA director from 1996 to 2004) rushed to Riyadh for an urgent meeting to warn King Abdullah that the royal family faced a serious threat," Ignatius said.
"Tenet told the king that al-Qaeda's plots were directed against your family and religious leadership and urged him to declare war." "This is where the king looked at Mohammed bin Nayef and said to others that you will deal with the anti-terrorism file."
"Sab has managed four major operations based in Riyadh: Alpha Star Aviation Services, which transports intelligence personnel and their weapons, and Basnam, which has built the fbi infrastructure and operations, including the new headquarters building.
"The Security Watch Company has provided armored vehicles and other security services, and it is the role of the Technical Control Company, which has worked with U.S. and Saudi companies to provide encryption, decryption, data extraction and other digital services."
Scary Weapon
A governing company has emerged as part of the conflict between Mohammed bin Salman and his opponents abroad, particularly former Saudi intelligence officer and dissident Saad al-Jabri, the first assistant to the former detained emir Mohammed bin Nayef.
On January 29, 2021, 10 Saudi government companies, owned by the Control Group, filed a lawsuit in Canada against Al-Jabri, claiming that he embezzled billions of dollars, in a development that intensifies the battle between Mohammed bin Salman and the country's former intelligence officer.
The subsidiary of the Sovereign Wealth Fund, headed by Ibn Salman, filed the case with the Ontario Supreme Court in Canada, where al-Jabri lives in exile.
In August 2020, Al-Jabri filed a lawsuit in the United States, accusing Salman of sending a team of agents to Canada to kill him at the end of 2018, in the same way that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in Turkey.
“Tahakom”, which enters the field of data analysis technology, is part of a wide range of Saudi intelligence activity since the rise of bin Salman, an activity with extensive black records in the kingdom's human rights file, spying mechanisms and targeting opponents.
For example, on January 23, 2020, French newspaper Le Monde said, "Saudi Arabia's hacking of the phone of Amazon founder and president Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, would be an amazing spy story."
According to Le Monde, "the infiltration of Bezos' device led to the publication of intimate pictures of the "billionaire" owner of the daily newspaper, in which he was writing the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who is known for his criticism of Riyadh."
"The findings of the 2019 technical analysis of Bezos's iPhone showed that the crown prince and amazon president exchanged their phone numbers the month before digital infiltration on May 1, 2018," the French newspaper reported.
On December 4, 2018, the New York Times published a report confirming that "a few months before the Saudi Crown Prince launched a massive arrest campaign involving hundreds of princes and businessmen, intelligence used Saudi technology companies, which in turn did mobile phone hacking programs through which they were able to arrest princes and dissidents."
