Commerce Department blacklists 2 European tech firms for spyware

July 18 (UPI) — The Commerce Department said on Tuesday that it has blacklisted two overseas tech firms that built spyware that was able to conduct surveillance on Meta users along with Android and iOS software.

The European firms Intellexa and Cytrox created software that exploited vulnerabilities in the communications software and deployed hundreds of spoof Meta accounts to keep track of activists, politicians and journalists globally.

The firms were named together and collectively and have subsidiaries in Greece, Ireland, Hungary and North Macedonia.

“This rule reaffirms the protection of human rights worldwide as a fundamental U.S. foreign policy interest,” Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves said in a statement. “The Entity List remains a powerful tool in our arsenal to prevent bad actors around the world from using American technology to reach their nefarious goals.”

According to tech security group Citizen Lab, Cytrox’s Predator spyware has been used by authoritarian regimes to monitor the cell phones of activists, politicians, and journalists. Meta told thousands of its users in 2021 that Predator was being used to target them.

One of Intellexa’s espionage products, Nebula, collects social media data and is promoted as a tool for law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

“We remain laser-focused on stemming the proliferation of digital tools for repression,” Bureau of Industry and Security Under Secretary Alan Estevez said. “Considering the impact of surveillance tools and other technologies on international human rights, I am pleased to announce these additions to our Entity List.”

In the past, Citizen Lab, Meta and Google have complained about both companies for allowing various groups to successfully hack into iOS and Android devices.

“Without appropriate guardrails, these tools can be misused to conduct intrusive and harmful surveillance on a wide range of targets, including against activists, dissidents, journalists and political opposition,” a senior administration official said.