Seven private spy companies had spread tentacles across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp hacking and tracking 50,000 people around the world, Mark Zuckerberg's company Meta Platforms Inc has revealed.
The war the company declared on mercenary spies comes amid a wider US mobilisation against private surveillance companies. Last month the US government blacklisted Israel's NSO Group, creator of the Pegasus spying software used by governments against politicians, activists and journalists around the world.
Meta has filed a lawsuit against NSO. Its new report on private spies sends the message that "the on-demand surveillance industry is much broader than a single company," Nathaniel Glycher, head of security policy at Meta, told Reuters.
The company blocked about 1,500 profiles, most of them fake, run by seven companies that targeted users in more than 100 countries.
One of the companies is Israel's Black Cube, which had undertaken surveillance missions on behalf of Harvey Weinstein, a convicted Hollywood rapist.The company had created fake profiles to chat with targets online and collect their email addresses.
Black Cube responded "that it does not undertake hacking or phishing operations" and that the activities of "all of its agents fully comply with local law."
Η λίστα της έκθεσης περιλαμβάνει επίσης την BellTroc, ινδική εταιρεία της οποίας τη δράση είχε αποκαλύψει το Reuters και η οργάνωση Citizen Lab, την ισραηλινή εταιρεία Bluehawk CI και την ευρωπαϊκή Cytrox. Και οι τρεις κατηγορούνται για χακάρισμα.
Δύο άλλες εταιρείες, η Cognyte και η ισραηλινής Cobwebs Technologies, κατηγορούνται όχι για χακάρισμα αλλά για δημιουργία ψεύτικων λογαριασμών που προσπαθούσαν να πείσουν τους χρήστες να αποκαλύψουν ευαίσθητα δεδομένα τους.
Πηγή: in.gr
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