Israeli ad company helped a spyware firm target Al Jazeera through online ads, researchers say
Researchers say the ads delivered zero-click spyware through major ad networks, reaching at least 45 Al Jazeera devices and millions of others worldwide.
- On Thursday, Canadian cyber watchdog group Citizen Lab and New York advertising security firm Confiant reported that Israeli digital advertising agency Discover-Tech spied on internet users through online ads to facilitate hacking and deliver spyware to their devices.
- Discover-Tech secretly operated a program called Controlium that allowed mercenary spyware companies like Candiru to inject malicious code onto visitors' devices; the firm's ads covertly directed millions of devices to contact Candiru's servers.
- Researchers found Discover-Tech pumped out at least 10 million ads daily, reaching over 120,000 websites and 70,000 apps between March and June. No-click spyware compromised 45 Windows devices at Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera in 2024 and 2025.
- Google and IAB Europe suspended Discover-Tech last week for violating policies, while Comcast ad tech subsidiary Beeswax removed the firm 'following recent activity.' Five ad vendors and industry organizations disconnected the platform from their services.
- Calling the current advertising ecosystem 'a systemic security threat,' Citizen Lab senior researcher Wolfie Cristl urged regulators to investigate involved companies and fix systemic risks that enable malicious ad targeting.
132 Articles
132 Articles
Adfection, a zero-click attack that infects devices without clicks using online advertisements, has been confirmed. Israeli advertising firm DiscoverTech was implicated in the distribution of spyware, and at least 45 Al Jazeera devices were affected. Google immediately blocked the firm's access to its advertising platform.
🪖 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...
Hundreds of millions of users would have been exposed to 'malware' Candiru according to two independent investigations.More information: "There is no precedent in recent history": this is how Israeli spies managed to put Iran against the strings
'Recipe for disaster': Israeli firm used ads to enable espionage, report says
An Israeli advertising agency has placed ads seen by millions of internet users that have left them open to spyware attacks, according to a new report from the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab.
No-click spyware enabler 'served ads on Australian media networks'
Australian citizens and infrastructure were part of a massive and unprecedented “zero-click” spyware network, according to Canadian researchers who brought the global attacks to light. Israeli ad-tech company Discover-Tech allegedly used online ads to track internet users and help infect selected devices with spyware, according to investigations by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab and […]
Two reports published on Thursday lift the veil on Discover-Tech, an Israeli company specializing in online advertising that sells its services to the surveillance sector.
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