​​Spyware Allows Cyber Threat Actors to Target Users of Messaging Applications​

CISA is aware of multiple cyber threat actors actively leveraging commercial spyware to target users of mobile messaging applications apps.1 These cyber actors use sophisticated targeting and social engineering techniques to deliver spyware and gain unauthorized access to a victim’s messaging app...

US Investment in Spyware Is Skyrocketing

A new report warns that the number of US investors in powerful commercial spyware rose sharply in 2024 and names new countries linked to the dangerous technology...

The Pall Mall Pact and why it matters

The US State Department reportedly plans to sign an international agreement designed to govern the use of commercial spyware known as the Pall Mall Pact. The Pall Mall Pact, formally known as the Pall Mall Process, was initiated by France and the United Kingdom in February 2024. The goal of the...

ICE Signs $2 Million Contract With Spyware Maker Paragon Solutions

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s one-year contract with Paragon’s US subsidiary comes amid the Biden administration’s years-long crackdown on commercial spyware vendors...

Arm Warns of Actively Exploited Zero-Day Vulnerability in Mali GPU Drivers

Arm is warning of a security vulnerability impacting Mali GPU Kernel Driver that it said has been actively exploited in the wild. Tracked as CVE-2024-4610, the use-after-free issue impacts the following products - Bifrost GPU Kernel Driver all versions from r34p0 to r40p0 Valhall GPU Kernel Drive...

U.S. Imposes Visa Restrictions on 13 Linked to Commercial Spyware Misuse

The U.S. Department of State on Monday said it's taking steps to impose visa restrictions on 13 individuals who are allegedly involved in the development and sale of commercial spyware or who are immediately family members of those involved in such businesses. "These individuals have facilitated ...

Apple Updates Spyware Alert System to Warn Victims of Mercenary Attacks

Apple on Wednesday revised its documentation pertaining to its mercenary spyware threat notification system to mention that it alerts users when they may have been individually targeted by such attacks. It also specifically called out companies like NSO Group for developing commercial surveillanc...

U.S. Cracks Down on Predatory Spyware Firm for Targeting Officials and Journalists

The U.S. Department of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC sanctioned two individuals and five entities associated with the Intellexa Alliance for their role in "developing, operating, and distributing" commercial spyware designed to target government officials, journalists, and poli...

Global Coalition and Tech Giants Unite Against Commercial Spyware Abuse

A coalition of dozens of countries, including France, the U.K., and the U.S., along with tech companies such as Google, MDSec, Meta, and Microsoft, have signed a joint agreement to curb the abuse of commercial spyware to commit human rights abuses. The initiative, dubbed the Pall Mall Process, ai...

U.S. Imposes Visa Restrictions on those Involved in Illegal Spyware Surveillance

The U.S. State Department said it's implementing a new policy that imposes visa restrictions on individuals who are linked to the illegal use of commercial spyware to surveil civil society members. "The misuse of commercial spyware threatens privacy and freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly,...

Experts Detail Multi-Million Dollar Licensing Model of Predator Spyware

A new analysis of the sophisticated commercial spyware called Predator has revealed that its ability to persist between reboots is offered as an "add-on feature" and that it depends on the licensing options opted by a customer. "In 2021, Predator spyware couldn't survive a reboot on the infected...

Intellexa and Cytrox: From fixer-upper to Intel Agency-grade spyware

By Mike Gentile, Asheer Malhotra and Vitor Ventura. Editors note: This blog post is a public version of a talk presented at LabsCon 2023 on Sept. 22, 2023. You can watch a recording of the talk here. Some of the intelligence presented at LabsCon was later confirmed by an Amnesty International blo...

What is commercial spyware?

Weve talked quite a bit about spyware recently, with very good reason. Recently, concerns have grown regarding the rapid growth of commercial spyware tools, and the way in which they are being used against their intended victims. This Need to Know article talk about the broader effects of spyware...

The growth of commercial spyware based intelligence providers without legal or ethical supervision

Attackers have long used commercial products developed by legitimate companies to compromise targeted devices. These products are known as commercial spyware. Commercial spyware operations mainly target mobile platforms with zero- or one-click zero-day exploits to deliver spyware. This threat...

Apple Releases Updates to Address Zero-Day Flaws in iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Safari

Apple on Friday released security updates for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Safari web browser to address a pair of zero-day flaws that are being exploited in the wild. The two vulnerabilities are as follows - CVE-2023-28205 - A use after free issue in WebKit that could lead to arbitrary code execution...

President Biden Signs Executive Order Restricting Use of Commercial Spyware

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday signed an executive order that restricts the use of commercial spyware by federal government agencies. The order said the spyware ecosystem "poses significant counterintelligence or security risks to the United States Government or significant risks of improper...

President Biden Signs Executive Order Restricting Use of Commercial Spyware

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday signed an executive order that restricts the use of commercial spyware by federal government agencies. The order said the spyware ecosystem "poses significant counterintelligence or security risks to the United States Government or significant risks of improper...

From Ransomware to Cyber Espionage: 55 Zero-Day Vulnerabilities Weaponized in 2022

As many as 55 zero-day vulnerabilities were exploited in the wild in 2022, with most of the flaws discovered in software from Microsoft, Google, and Apple. While this figure represents a decrease from the year before, when a staggering 81 zero-days were weaponized, it still represents a significa...

WhatsApp Spyware Attack: Uncovering NSO Group Activity

On the heels of Facebook filing a lawsuit against Israeli company NSO Group — alleging that it was behind the massive WhatsApp hack earlier this year — privacy experts say that the move is “popping the unaccountable bubble” that commercial spyware companies have carved out for themselves. After...

The State of Stalkerware in 2019

Introduction and methodology Six months ago, we created a special alert that notifies users about commercial spyware stalkerware products installed on their phones. This report examines the use of stalkerware and the number of users affected by this software in the first eight months of 2019...