"A new spyware-for-hire, Predator, caught hacking phones of politicians and journalists" 16 December 2021

While NSO Group was taking flak for hacking into the phones of journalists, activists and human rights defenders, an entire class of spyware makers and surveillance-for-hire outfits were operating as normal, largely unnoticed.

These private surveillance groups develop and deploy never-before-seen exploits that quietly hack into and steal the contents of a victim’s phone...often on behalf of authoritarian governments targeting their most vocal critics.

... Following an investigation by...Citizen Lab and Facebook’s new parent company, Meta, seven surveillance-for-hire groups have been banned from using the social media giant’s platforms to target other users.

Meta said...that it has removed more than 1,500 Facebook and Instagram accounts associated with the seven outfits, which the company said were used for reconnaissance, social engineering and sending malicious links to thousands of victims in over 100 countries. Meta said it’s notified around 50,000 people it believes were targeted by the seven groups.

...One of the banned companies is Cytrox...Meta said it found the company using a “vast” infrastructure of web domains mimicking legitimate news sites to target the iPhone and Android devices of its victims...

Meta was acting on findings by Citizen Lab, which...released a forensic report into the hacking of phones belonging to two Egyptians living in exile...Citizen Lab said the spyware that infected their phones in July 2021, dubbed Predator, was developed by Cytrox.

Citizen Lab said it was likely that Predator is being used by government customers in Armenia, Greece, Serbia, Indonesia, Madagascar and Oman — plus Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which are known to target their critics with mobile spyware...

Cytrox CEO Ivo Malinkovski could not be reached for comment; an email sent prior to publication bounced as undelivered.

Meta...also banned four other Israeli companies involved in the surveillance-for-hire business: Cobwebs, Cognyte, Black Cube and Bluehawk. In addition, it banned BellTrox, an Indian hacking outfit accused of hacking into thousands of email accounts belonging to politicians and government officials...