Security researchers at digital rights unit The Citizen Lab say government spyware makers are abusing global advertising networks to target and hack devices by serving malicious online adverts.
A new report published Thursday by the University of Toronto lab, which investigates surveillance and digital rights abuses, said an Israeli company called Discover-Tech allows spyware makers to use its advertising platform to target specific people or devices almost anywhere in the world with spyware capable of invisibly stealing their data.
The researchers say Discover-Tech presents itself as a legitimate advertising firm, but instead serves as a “bridge between ad vendors and the mercenary spyware ecosystem.”
Read more…
Source: TechCrunch News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- When Maximum Effort Doesn’t Equate to Maximum Results
November 21, 2023
It’s no secret that security teams are feeling beleaguered as a result of the barrage of data, events, and alerts generated by their security tools, to say nothing of the increased budget scrutiny and constrained staff resources that continue to plague cybersecurity practitioners. The trick is finding the right balance between how much internal teams have ...
- Konni Campaign Distributed Via Malicious Document
November 20, 2023
FortiGuard Labs recently identified the use of a Russian-language Word document equipped with a malicious macro in the ongoing Konni campaign. Despite the document’s creation date of September, ongoing activity on the campaign’s C2 server is evident in internal telemetry. This campaign relies on a remote access trojan (RAT) capable of extracting information and executing commands ...
- Social engineering attacks lure Indian users to install Android banking trojans
November 20, 2023
Microsoft has observed ongoing activity from mobile banking trojan campaigns targeting users in India with social media messages designed to steal users’ information for financial fraud. Using social media platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram, attackers are sending messages designed to lure users into installing a malicious app on their mobile device by impersonating legitimate organizations, such ...
- Hackers accessed sensitive health data of Welltok patients
November 20, 2023
Hackers accessed the personal data of more than a million people by exploiting a security vulnerability in a file transfer tool used by Welltok, the healthcare platform owned by Virgin Pulse. Welltok, a Denver-based patient engagement company that works with healthcare plans to provide communications to subscribers about their healthcare, confirmed in a data breach notification ...
- K-12 schools improve protection against online attacks, but many are vulnerable to ransomware gangs
November 19, 2023
Some K-12 public schools are racing to improve protection against the threat of online attacks, but lax cybersecurity means thousands of others are vulnerable to ransomware gangs that can steal confidential data and disrupt operations. Since a White House conference in August on ransomware threats, dozens of school districts have signed up for free cybersecurity services, ...
- Canada: Current and former public service, RCMP, military members affected by data breach
November 18, 2023
The federal government is warning current and former public service employees and members of the RCMP and Canadian Armed Forces their personal and financial information may have been accessed in a data breach that occurred on Oct. 19. The breach affects federal government data held by Brookfield Global Relocation Services (BGRS) and SIRVA Worldwide Relocation & ...