US removes three spyware-linked executives from sanctions list


Merom Harpaz, Andrea Nicola Constantino Hermes Gambazzi, and Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou – three individuals who were sanctioned by the US for alleged links to commercial spyware products, have had their bans lifted recently.

In a new press release published by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) earlier this week, it was briefly stated that these three were deleted from OFAC’s Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list. The announcement did not explain what changed and why these three are no longer under sanctions.

Read more…
Source: TechRadar News


Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • How Myanmar’s military moved in on the telecoms sector to spy on citizens

    May 19, 2021

    In the months before the Myanmar military’s Feb. 1 coup, the country’s telecom and internet service providers were ordered to install intercept spyware that would allow the army to eavesdrop on the communications of citizens, sources with direct knowledge of the plan told Reuters. The technology gives the military the power to listen in on calls, ...

  • Flubot Spyware Spreading Through Android Devices

    April 26, 2021

    Android mobile phone users across the U.K. are being targeted by text messages containing a particularly nasty piece of spyware called “Flubot,” according to the country’s National Cyber Security Centre. The malware is delivered to targets through SMS texts and prompts them to install a “missed package delivery” app. Instead, it takes victims to a scam ...

  • APT32 state hackers target human rights defenders with spyware

    February 23, 2021

    Vietnam-backed hacking group APT32 has coordinated several spyware attacks targeting Vietnamese human rights defenders (HRDs) between February 2018 and November 2020. The state hackers also pointed their attacks at a nonprofit (NPO) human rights organization from Vietnam, as Amnesty International’s Security Lab revealed (full report here). The spyware used by the APT32 hackers allowed them to read ...

  • Masslogger Swipes Microsoft Outlook, Google Chrome Credentials

    February 17, 2021

    Cybercriminals are targeting Windows users with a new variant of the Masslogger trojan, which is spyware designed to swipe victims’ credentials from Microsoft Outlook, Google Chrome and various instant-messenger accounts. Researchers uncovered the campaign targeting users in Italy, Latvia and Turkey starting in mid-January. When the Masslogger variant launched its infection chain, it disguised its malicious ...

  • Android spyware strains linked to state-sponsored Confucius threat group

    February 11, 2021

    Two variants of Android spyware connected to pro-India, state-sponsored hacking campaigns have been discovered. On Tuesday, cybersecurity firm Lookout said that two malware strains, dubbed Hornbill and SunBird, have been linked to Confucius, an advanced persistent threat (APT) group thought to be state-sponsored and to have pro-India ties. First detected in 2013, Confucius has been linked to ...

  • Zero-click iOS zero-day found deployed against Al Jazeera employees

    December 20, 2020

    At least 36 Al Jazeera journalists, producers, anchors, and executives, along with a journalist at London-based Al Araby TV, had their iPhones hacked using a no-user-interaction zero-day vulnerability in the iOS iMessage app, an academic research group said today. Citizen Lab, a cybersecurity and human rights abuse research group at the University of Toronto, said the ...