🪖🇮🇱 Israeli spyware weaponized online ads to hunt targets worldwide

Israeli-linked spyware operators exploited the digital advertising industry to track and potentially infect devices without users clicking a single link, revealed Canadian watchdog Citizen Lab.

Israeli company Discover-Tech, posing as a legitimate ad business, used targeted advertising as a covert pipeline for mercenary spyware operators like Candiru (now known as Integrity Labs), steering millions of devices toward its servers for tracking and reconnaissance, the report found.

🔴 Discover-Tech operates Controlium, a platform that can identify devices, collect technical fingerprints and trigger infection attempts simply when an ad is displayed - no click required

🔴 over four months, its advertisements appeared on nearly 200,000 unique websites and Android and iOS apps across dozens of countries

🔴 the company served at least 10 million ads daily, per separate report by advertising security firm Confiant

🔴 ads appeared across sensitive networks linked to the Pentagon, International Atomic Energy Agency, International Criminal Court, NATO, UN, European Parliament, European Commission and national governments

🔴 Discover-Tech was listed as an approved vendor by Google and IAB Europe and placed ads through major advertising networks; researchers also linked it to Israeli spyware operators Intelos and Bindecy

Candiru was blacklisted by the US in 2021 over national security concerns, alongside Israeli spyware firm NSO Group (behind the notorious Pegasus software.

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