145-497: NSO Group Technologies (NSO standing for Niv, Shalev and Omri , the names of the company's founders) is an Israeli cyber-intelligence firm primarily known for its proprietary spyware Pegasus , which is capable of remote zero-click surveillance of smartphones. It employed almost 500 people as of 2017. NSO claims that it provides authorized governments with technology that helps them combat terror and crime. The company says that it deals with government clients only. Pegasus spyware
290-518: A Swiss bank registered in the Cayman Islands . NSO was founded in 2010 by Niv Karmi, Omri Lavie, and Shalev Hulio. In 2012, the Federal government of Mexico announced the signing of a $ 20 million contract with NSO. It was later revealed by a New York Times investigation that NSO's product was used to target journalists and human rights activists in the country. NSO pitched its spyware to
435-451: A Trojan horse , spy gadgets that look like normal devices but turn out to be something else, such as a USB Keylogger. These devices actually are connected to the device as memory units but are capable of recording each stroke made on the keyboard. Some spyware authors infect a system through security holes in the Web browser or in other software. When the user navigates to a Web page controlled by
580-422: A web browser other than Internet Explorer , such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome . Though no browser is completely safe, Internet Explorer was once at a greater risk for spyware infection due to its large user base as well as vulnerabilities such as ActiveX but these three major browsers are now close to equivalent when it comes to security. Some ISPs —particularly colleges and universities—have taken
725-540: A " team sport ". The CIA 's National Counterterrorism Center is allowed to examine federal government files for possible criminal behavior, even if there is no reason to suspect U.S. citizens of wrongdoing. Previously the NTC was barred to do so, unless a person was a terror suspect or related to an investigation. Snowden also confirmed that Stuxnet was cooperatively developed by the United States and Israel. In
870-611: A 30-day period ending in March 2013. Out of all 97 billion sets of information, about 3 billion data sets originated from U.S. computer networks and around 500 million metadata records were collected from German networks. In August 2013, it was revealed that the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) of Germany transfers massive amounts of metadata records to the NSA. Der Spiegel disclosed that out of all 27 member states of
1015-417: A U.S. military contractor with experience in the spyware technology sector, was conducting talks on the possibility of acquiring NSO. L3Harris sought to acquire NSO's technology and code with the acquisition of the company's employees discussed as well. L3Harris executives travelled to Israel to conduct the talks which were not disclosed to the public. L3Harris reportedly told their NSO counterparts that they had
1160-517: A computer administrator that runs everything under limited user privileges, when a program requires administrative privileges, a User Account Control pop-up will prompt the user to allow or deny the action. This improves on the design used by previous versions of Windows. Spyware is also known as tracking software. As the spyware threat has evolved, a number of techniques have emerged to counteract it. These include programs designed to remove or block spyware, as well as various user practices which reduce
1305-760: A court filing, BRG described NSO as "valueless" to its private equity backers; in December 2021, a group of NSO creditors described NSO as insolvent in a letter to NSO's majority shareholders. Two of the ousted co-founders attempted to reclaim control over Novalpina Capital's assets by filing a lawsuit in Luxemburg, with a U.K. court allowing the case to proceed to trial in April 2022. In an April 2022 letter, BRG told an EU committee investigating abuse of NSO's products that NSO's management has not been forthcoming in providing information about its business operations, including on
1450-555: A deterioration of Russia–United States relations . Toward the end of October 2013, the British Prime Minister David Cameron warned The Guardian not to publish any more leaks, or it will receive a DA-Notice . In November 2013, a criminal investigation of the disclosure was undertaken by Britain's Metropolitan Police Service . In December 2013, The Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger said: "We have published I think 26 documents so far out of
1595-498: A different approach to blocking spyware: they use their network firewalls and web proxies to block access to Web sites known to install spyware. On March 31, 2005, Cornell University 's Information Technology department released a report detailing the behavior of one particular piece of proxy-based spyware, Marketscore , and the steps the university took to intercept it. Many other educational institutions have taken similar steps. Individual users can also install firewalls from
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#17327722647641740-512: A former director of GCHQ, described Snowden's disclosure as the "most catastrophic loss to British intelligence ever". In April 2012, NSA contractor Edward Snowden began downloading documents. That year, Snowden had made his first contact with journalist Glenn Greenwald , then employed by The Guardian , and he contacted documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras in January 2013. In May 2013, Snowden went on temporary leave from his position at
1885-439: A former employee of NSO for allegedly stealing a copy of Pegasus and attempting to sell it online for $ 50 million worth of cryptocurrency . In August 2018, the human rights group Amnesty International accused NSO of helping Saudi Arabia spy on a member of the organization's staff. In April 2019, NSO froze its deals with Saudi Arabia over a scandal alleging NSO software's role in tracking murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in
2030-402: A full-time replacement was to be named. Hulio's resignation from his post as CEO came amid a restructuring of the company as it attempted to focus on pursuing clients among NATO member countries. The reorganisation also entailed a downsizing NSO's workforce, with 100 employees (out of a total of 750 employees) being let go. In March 2023, it was reported that Omrie Lavie had emerged in control of
2175-422: A heated debate on the issue among Israeli officials, and subsequently blocked the sale. The company's start-up funding came from a group of investors headed by Eddy Shalev, a partner in venture capital fund Genesis Partners which invested a total of $ 1.8 million for a 30% stake. In 2013, NSO's annual revenues were around US$ 40 million. In 2014, the U.S.-based private equity firm Francisco Partners bought
2320-526: A large number of rogue (fake) anti-spyware programs, and widely distributed Web banner ads can warn users that their computers have been infected with spyware, directing them to purchase programs which do not actually remove spyware—or else, may add more spyware of their own. The recent proliferation of fake or spoofed antivirus products that bill themselves as antispyware can be troublesome. Users may receive popups prompting them to install them to protect their computer, when it will in fact add spyware. It
2465-468: A legal framework governing the use of such software. In the US, the term " policeware " has been used for similar purposes. Use of the term "spyware" has eventually declined as the practice of tracking users has been pushed ever further into the mainstream by major websites and data mining companies; these generally break no known laws and compel users to be tracked, not by fraudulent practices per se , but by
2610-448: A new computer because the existing system "has become too slow". Badly infected systems may require a clean reinstallation of all their software in order to return to full functionality. Moreover, some types of spyware disable software firewalls and antivirus software , and/or reduce browser security settings, which opens the system to further opportunistic infections . Some spyware disables or even removes competing spyware programs, on
2755-470: A number of the spyware programs distributed by Claria are collectively known as "Gator". Likewise, programs that are frequently installed together may be described as parts of the same spyware package, even if they function separately. Spyware vendors include NSO Group , which in the 2010s sold spyware to governments for spying on human rights activists and journalists . NSO Group was investigated by Citizen Lab . Malicious programmers have released
2900-534: A point of attachment for spyware in the form of Browser Helper Objects , which modify the browser's behaviour. A spyware program rarely operates alone on a computer; an affected machine usually has multiple infections. Users frequently notice unwanted behavior and degradation of system performance. A spyware infestation can create significant unwanted CPU activity, disk usage, and network traffic. Stability issues, such as applications freezing, failure to boot, and system-wide crashes are also common. Usually, this effect
3045-452: A report unrelated to Edward Snowden, the French newspaper Le Monde revealed that France's DGSE was also undertaking mass surveillance, which it described as "illegal and outside any serious control". Documents leaked by Edward Snowden that were seen by Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) and Norddeutscher Rundfunk revealed that several telecom operators have played a key role in helping
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#17327722647643190-568: A second Calcalist report revealed that the warrantless surveillance was very widespread, including that of politicians and government officials, heads of corporations, journalists, activists, and even Avner Netanyahu , the son of then-Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu . After outcry and calls for a state commission of inquiry, including from the current police commissioner himself, the Minister of Public Security (the minister responsible for
3335-449: A user's control of a computer by installing additional software or redirecting web browsers . Some spyware can change computer settings, which can result in slow Internet connection speeds, un-authorized changes in browser settings, or changes to software settings. Sometimes, spyware is included along with genuine software, and may come from a malicious website or may have been added to the intentional functionality of genuine software (see
3480-792: A variety of companies. These monitor the flow of information going to and from a networked computer and provide protection against spyware and malware. Some users install a large hosts file which prevents the user's computer from connecting to known spyware-related web addresses. Spyware may get installed via certain shareware programs offered for download. Downloading programs only from reputable sources can provide some protection from this source of attack. Individual users can use cellphone / computer with physical (electric) switch, or isolated electronic switch that disconnects microphone, camera without bypass and keep it in disconnected position where not in use, that limits information that spyware can collect. (Policy recommended by NIST Guidelines for Managing
3625-554: A website wanted to install. The combination of user ignorance about these changes, and the assumption by Internet Explorer that all ActiveX components are benign, helped to spread spyware significantly. Many spyware components would also make use of exploits in JavaScript , Internet Explorer and Windows to install without user knowledge or permission. The Windows Registry contains multiple sections where modification of key values allows software to be executed automatically when
3770-540: A work trip to the UAE. The employee broke into the client's office outside of office hours to use the tool, prompted an alert and an investigation by the client. The employee was detained by authorities, and fired by NSO, Motherboard's sources said. Sources also told Motherboard that NSO leadership held a meeting to prevent similar incidents in the future, and subsequently adopted more rigorous screening of employees that interact with clients. In July 2020, Motherboard reported that
3915-671: Is a subsidiary of the Q Cyber Technologies group of companies. Q Cyber Technologies is the name the NSO Group uses in Israel, but the company goes by OSY Technologies in Luxembourg, and in North America, a subsidiary formerly known as Westbridge. It has operated through various other companies around the world. NSO Group was founded in 2010 by Niv Karmi, Omri Lavie, and Shalev Hulio. Hulio and Lavie were school friends who went into
4060-414: Is a type of spyware that is not hidden from the user, but operates with their knowledge, if not necessarily their consent. Parents, religious leaders or other authority figures may require their children or congregation members to install such software, which is intended to detect the viewing of pornography or other content deemed inappropriate, and to report it to the authority figure, who may then confront
4205-623: Is a violation of the terms of service of most affiliate marketing networks. Mobile devices can also be vulnerable to chargeware , which manipulates users into illegitimate mobile charges. In one case, spyware has been closely associated with identity theft . In August 2005, researchers from security software firm Sunbelt Software suspected the creators of the common CoolWebSearch spyware had used it to transmit " chat sessions , user names , passwords , bank information, etc."; however it turned out that "it actually (was) its own sophisticated criminal little trojan that's independent of CWS." This case
4350-420: Is advised for those who are less knowledgeable on this subject to post a HijackThis log on the numerous antispyware sites and let the experts decide what to delete. If a spyware program is not blocked and manages to get itself installed, it may resist attempts to terminate or uninstall it. Some programs work in pairs: when an anti-spyware scanner (or the user) terminates one running process, the other one respawns
4495-577: Is also in a partnership with British, American and Singaporean intelligence agencies to tap undersea fibre optic telecommunications cables that link Asia, the Middle East and Europe and carry much of Australia's international phone and internet traffic. The U.S. runs a top-secret surveillance program known as the Special Collection Service (SCS), which is based in over 80 U.S. consulates and embassies worldwide. The NSA hacked
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4640-409: Is any malware that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user by violating their privacy , endangering their device's security, or other means. This behavior may be present in other malware and in legitimate software. Websites may engage in spyware behaviors like web tracking . Hardware devices may also be affected. Spyware
4785-503: Is classified as a military export by Israel and its sale is controlled by the government. According to The New York Times , "Israel's government has long seen Pegasus as a critical tool for its foreign policy." and that it "[...] has treated NSO as a de facto arm of the state, granting licenses for Pegasus to numerous countries [...] with which the Israeli government hoped to nurture stronger security and diplomatic ties." Israel has used
4930-455: Is classified as a weapon by Israel and any export of the technology must be approved by the government. According to several reports, NSO Group spyware has been used to target human rights activists and journalists in various countries, was used for state espionage against Pakistan , for warrantless domestic surveillance of Israeli citizens by Israeli police, and played a role in the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi by agents of
5075-457: Is frequently associated with advertising and involves many of the same issues . Because these behaviors are so common, and can have non-harmful uses, providing a precise definition of spyware is a difficult task. The first recorded use of the term spyware occurred on October 16, 1995, in a Usenet post that poked fun at Microsoft 's business model . Spyware at first denoted software meant for espionage purposes. However, in early 2000
5220-602: Is intentional, but may be caused from the malware simply requiring large amounts of computing power, disk space, or network usage. Spyware, which interferes with networking software commonly causes difficulty connecting to the Internet. In some infections, the spyware is not even evident. Users assume in those situations that the performance issues relate to faulty hardware, Windows installation problems, or another malware infection. Some owners of badly infected systems resort to contacting technical support experts, or even buying
5365-469: Is of limited usefulness without regular updates. Updates may be installed automatically or manually. A popular generic spyware removal tool used by those that requires a certain degree of expertise is HijackThis , which scans certain areas of the Windows OS where spyware often resides and presents a list with items to delete manually. As most of the items are legitimate windows files/registry entries it
5510-586: Is recommended that users do not install any freeware claiming to be anti-spyware unless it is verified to be legitimate. Some known offenders include: Snowden revelations During the 2010s, international media reports revealed new operational details about the Anglophone cryptographic agencies' global surveillance of both foreign and domestic nationals. The reports mostly relate to top secret documents leaked by ex- NSA contractor Edward Snowden . The documents consist of intelligence files relating to
5655-402: Is surreptitiously installed to control a user's computer. In German-speaking countries, spyware used or made by the government is called govware by computer experts (in common parlance: Regierungstrojaner , literally "Government Trojan"). Govware is typically a trojan horse software used to intercept communications from the target computer. Some countries, like Switzerland and Germany, have
5800-440: Is to install, hack into the network, avoid being detected, and safely remove themselves from the network. Spyware is mostly used for the stealing information and storing Internet users' movements on the Web and serving up pop-up ads to Internet users. Whenever spyware is used for malicious purposes, its presence is typically hidden from the user and can be difficult to detect. Some spyware, such as keyloggers , may be installed by
5945-494: Is used by the NSA and the other is used by NATO forces in Afghanistan . The two programs are "not identical". The Guardian revealed further details of the NSA's XKeyscore tool, which allows government analysts to search through vast databases containing emails, online chats and the browsing histories of millions of individuals without prior authorization. Microsoft "developed a surveillance capability to deal" with
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6090-585: The GIANT AntiSpyware software, re‑branding it as Microsoft AntiSpyware (Beta 1) and releasing it as a free download for Genuine Windows XP and Windows 2003 users. In November, 2005, it was renamed Windows Defender . Major anti-virus firms such as Symantec , PC Tools , McAfee and Sophos have also added anti-spyware features to their existing anti-virus products. Early on, anti-virus firms expressed reluctance to add anti-spyware functions, citing lawsuits brought by spyware authors against
6235-683: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation , the Australian Broadcasting Corporation , Der Spiegel (Germany), O Globo (Brazil), Le Monde (France), L'espresso (Italy), NRC Handelsblad (the Netherlands), Dagbladet (Norway), El País (Spain), and Sveriges Television (Sweden). Barton Gellman , a Pulitzer Prize –winning journalist who led The Washington Post ' s coverage of Snowden's disclosures, summarized
6380-550: The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) , which declined to purchase it due to its high cost. In 2015, the company sold surveillance technology to the government of Panama. The contract later became the subject of a Panamanian anti-corruption investigation following its disclosure in a leak of confidential information from Italian firm Hacking Team . In August 2016, NSO (through its U.S. subsidiary Westbridge) pitched its U.S. version of Pegasus to
6525-673: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), in addition to the agency's previously undisclosed financial payments to numerous commercial partners and telecommunications companies, as well as its previously undisclosed relationships with international partners such as Britain, France, Germany, and its secret treaties with foreign governments that were recently established for sharing intercepted data of each other's citizens. The disclosures were made public over
6670-547: The Guardian ' s defence and intelligence correspondent Ewen MacAskill would fly to Hong Kong to meet Snowden. On June 5, in the first media report based on the leaked material, The Guardian exposed a top secret court order showing that the NSA had collected phone records from over 120 million Verizon subscribers . Under the order, the numbers of both parties on a call, as well as the location data, unique identifiers, time of call, and duration of call were handed over to
6815-486: The San Diego Police Department (SDPD) In the marketing material, Westbridge emphasized that the company is U.S. based and majority owned by a U.S. parent company. A SDPD Sergeant responded to the sales pitch with "sounds awesome". The SDPD declined to purchase the spyware as it was too expensive. Around 2016, NSO reportedly sold Pegasus software to Ghana . In June 2018, an Israeli court indicted
6960-758: The United Nations Headquarters in New York. During specific episodes within a four-year period, the NSA hacked several Chinese mobile-phone companies, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the Asian fiber-optic network operator Pacnet . Only Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK are explicitly exempted from NSA attacks, whose main target in
7105-594: The 1970s, NSA analyst Perry Fellwock (under the pseudonym "Winslow Peck") revealed the existence of the UKUSA Agreement , which forms the basis of the ECHELON network, whose existence was revealed in 1988 by Lockheed employee Margaret Newsham. Months before the September 11 attacks and during its aftermath, further details of the global surveillance apparatus were provided by various individuals such as
7250-466: The 58,000 we've seen." The extent to which the media reports responsibly informed the public is disputed. In January 2014, Obama said that "the sensational way in which these disclosures have come out has often shed more heat than light" and critics such as Sean Wilentz have noted that many of the Snowden documents do not concern domestic surveillance. The US & British Defense establishment weigh
7395-729: The AP report, NSO denied any involvement. It was later also uncovered that the identified undercover agent had previously worked on a case linked to the Israeli private intelligence agency Black Cube ; NSO Group subsequently denied contracting Black Cube, and Black Cube denied involvement as well. In February 2019, Associated Press reported that at least four more individuals - three lawyers involved in lawsuits against NSO Group for alleged sales of NSO spyware to governments with poor human rights records, and one journalist who had been covering said litigation - were being pursued by undercover operatives for their work on NSO. Undercover agents again tried to goad
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#17327722647647540-528: The BND turned over copies of two systems named Mira4 and Veras, reported to exceed the NSA's SIGINT capabilities in certain areas. Every day, massive amounts of metadata records are collected by the BND and transferred to the NSA via the Bad Aibling Station near Munich , Germany. In December 2012 alone, the BND handed over 500 million metadata records to the NSA. In a document dated January 2013,
7685-889: The British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) tap into worldwide fiber-optic communications . The telecom operators are: Each of them were assigned a particular area of the international fiber-optic network for which they were individually responsible. The following networks have been infiltrated by GCHQ: TAT-14 (EU-UK-US), Atlantic Crossing 1 (EU-UK-US), Circe South (France-UK), Circe North (Netherlands-UK), Flag Atlantic-1 , Flag Europa-Asia , SEA-ME-WE 3 (Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe), SEA-ME-WE 4 (Southeast Asia-Middle East-Western Europe), Solas (Ireland-UK), UK-France 3, UK-Netherlands 14, ULYSSES (EU-UK), Yellow (UK-US) and Pan European Crossing (EU-UK). Telecommunication companies who participated were "forced" to do so and had "no choice in
7830-526: The European Union is Germany. A method of bugging encrypted fax machines used at an EU embassy is codenamed Dropmire . During the 2009 G-20 London summit , the British intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) intercepted the communications of foreign diplomats. In addition, GCHQ has been intercepting and storing mass quantities of fiber-optic traffic via Tempora . Two principal components of Tempora are called " Mastering
7975-486: The European Union, Germany is the most targeted due to the NSA's systematic monitoring and storage of Germany's telephone and Internet connection data. According to the magazine the NSA stores data from around half a billion communications connections in Germany each month. This data includes telephone calls, emails, mobile-phone text messages and chat transcripts. The NSA gained massive amounts of information captured from
8120-503: The FBI, which turned over the records to the NSA. According to The Wall Street Journal , the Verizon order is part of a controversial data program, which seeks to stockpile records on all calls made in the U.S., but does not collect information directly from T-Mobile US and Verizon Wireless , in part because of their foreign ownership ties. On June 6, 2013, the second media disclosure,
8265-478: The Internet " (MTI) and " Global Telecoms Exploitation ". The data is preserved for three days while metadata is kept for thirty days. Data collected by GCHQ under Tempora is shared with the National Security Agency (NSA) of the United States. From 2001 to 2011, the NSA collected vast amounts of metadata records detailing the email and internet usage of Americans via Stellar Wind , which
8410-529: The Mossad, was brought on board to help market the tool with the help of his contacts. The first iteration of NSO's Pegasus spyware was finalised in 2011. NSO Group has come to employ over 700 personnel globally. Almost all of NSO's research team is made up of former Israeli military intelligence personnel, most of them having served in Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate , and many of these in its Unit 8200 . The company's most valuable staff are graduates of
8555-482: The NSA acknowledged the efforts of the BND to undermine privacy laws : The BND has been working to influence the German government to relax interpretation of the privacy laws to provide greater opportunities of intelligence sharing. According to an NSA document dated April 2013, Germany has now become the NSA's "most prolific partner". Under a section of a separate document leaked by Snowden titled "Success Stories",
8700-630: The NSA acknowledged the efforts of the German government to expand the BND's international data sharing with partners: The German government modifies its interpretation of the G-10 privacy law ... to afford the BND more flexibility in sharing protected information with foreign partners. In addition, the German government was well aware of the PRISM surveillance program long before Edward Snowden made details public. According to Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert , there are two separate PRISM programs – one
8845-595: The NSA is responsible for these partnerships, which, according to Snowden, are organized such that foreign governments can "insulate their political leaders" from public outrage in the event that these global surveillance partnerships are leaked. In an interview published by Der Spiegel , Snowden accused the NSA of being "in bed together with the Germans". The NSA granted the German intelligence agencies BND (foreign intelligence) and BfV (domestic intelligence) access to its controversial XKeyscore system. In return,
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#17327722647648990-610: The NSA", while Swedish Television revealed the National Defence Radio Establishment (FRA) provided the NSA with data from its cable collection , under a secret agreement signed in 1954 for bilateral cooperation on surveillance. Other security and intelligence agencies involved in the practice of global surveillance include those in Australia ( ASD ), Britain ( GCHQ ), Canada ( CSE ), Denmark ( PET ), France ( DGSE ), Germany ( BND ), Italy ( AISE ),
9135-463: The NSA, citing the pretext of receiving treatment for his epilepsy . Toward the end of May, he traveled to Hong Kong. Greenwald, Poitras and The Guardian 's defence and intelligence correspondent Ewen MacAskill flew to Hong Kong to meet Snowden. After the U.S.-based editor of The Guardian , Janine Gibson , held several meetings in New York City, she decided that Greenwald, Poitras and
9280-521: The NSO group. Despite this, an article written by The Guardian during the 2021 Pegasus scandal quoted NSO Group as saying that it had been "regulated by the export control regimes of Israel, Cyprus and Bulgaria". NSO's own "Transparency and Responsibility Report 2021", published about a month before the scandal, makes the same statement, adding that those were the three countries through which NSO exported its products. Circles' Bulgarian office, in particular,
9425-576: The National Cyber-Security Alliance, 61 percent of surveyed users' computers were infected with some form of spyware. 92 percent of surveyed users with spyware reported that they did not know of its presence, and 91 percent reported that they had not given permission for the installation of the spyware. As of 2006 , spyware has become one of the preeminent security threats to computer systems running Microsoft Windows operating systems . Computers on which Internet Explorer (IE)
9570-547: The Netherlands ( AIVD ), Norway ( NIS ), Spain ( CNI ), Switzerland ( NDB ), Singapore ( SID ) as well as Israel ( ISNU ), which receives raw, unfiltered data of U.S. citizens from the NSA. On June 14, 2013, United States prosecutors charged Edward Snowden with espionage and theft of government property . In late July 2013, he was granted a one-year temporary asylum by the Russian government, contributing to
9715-580: The Saudi government. In 2019, instant messaging company WhatsApp and its parent company Meta Platforms (then known as Facebook) sued NSO under the United States Computer Fraud and Abuse Act . In 2021, Apple filed a lawsuit against NSO in the U.S., and the US included NSO Group in its Entity List for acting against U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, effectively banning U.S. companies from supplying NSO. NSO Group
9860-534: The Security of Mobile Devices, 2013). A few spyware vendors, notably 180 Solutions , have written what the New York Times has dubbed " stealware ", and what spyware researcher Ben Edelman terms affiliate fraud , a form of click fraud . Stealware diverts the payment of affiliate marketing revenues from the legitimate affiliate to the spyware vendor. Spyware which attacks affiliate networks places
10005-662: The U.S. and other Five Eyes countries. In June 2013, the first of Snowden's documents were published, with further selected documents released to various news outlets through the year. These media reports disclosed several secret treaties signed by members of the UKUSA community in their efforts to implement global surveillance . For example, Der Spiegel revealed how the German Federal Intelligence Service ( German : Bundesnachrichtendienst ; BND) transfers "massive amounts of intercepted data to
10150-493: The U.S. market for use on U.S. targets, receiving permission from Israel to develop it as a specialty tool for exclusive use by U.S. governmental agencies. In 2014, the surveillance firm Circles was acquired by Francisco Partners, becoming a corporate affiliate of NSO Group. Circles' product is a phone geolocation tool. The firm has two systems. One operates by connecting to the purchasing country's local telecommunications companies’ infrastructure. The other separate system, known as
10295-878: The UAE SCNS. Aside from Israel and the UAE, the report named the governments of Australia , Belgium , Botswana , Chile , Denmark , Ecuador , El Salvador , Estonia , Equatorial Guinea , Guatemala , Honduras , Indonesia , Kenya , Malaysia , Mexico , Morocco , Nigeria , Peru , Serbia , Vietnam , Zambia , and Zimbabwe as likely customers of Circles surveillance technology. In September 2021, Forensic News published shipping records showing that in 2020 Circles supplied equipment to Uzbekistan's State Security Service (SGB). In October 2018, Associated Press reported that two Citizen Lab researchers were being pursued by undercover operatives with false identities. The undercover agents had been inquiring about their work involving NSO Group, and also appeared to be trying to goad
10440-554: The US branch of NSO was pitching its brand of Pegasus to the US Secret Service during 2018. In November 2021, the United States added the NSO Group to its Entity List , for acting "contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US" and it effectively bans the sale of hardware and software to the company. The listing deprived NSO of U.S. technology on which NSO relies, crippling its operations. Israeli officials subsequently unsuccessfully attempted to get
10585-633: The United Nations' video conferencing system in Summer 2012 in violation of a UN agreement. The NSA is not just intercepting the communications of Americans who are in direct contact with foreigners targeted overseas, but also searching the contents of vast amounts of e-mail and text communications into and out of the country by Americans who mention information about foreigners under surveillance. It also spied on Al Jazeera and gained access to its internal communications systems. The NSA has built
10730-472: The article that made the secret acquisition negotiations public, stating that the White House had not been in any way involved in the deal, further stating that the U.S. government "opposes efforts by foreign companies to circumvent US export control measures or sanctions [...]". In August 2022, Hulio stepped down from his post as CEO, with the company's COO Yaron Shohat temporarily assuming the role until
10875-554: The authors of web sites and programs which described their products as "spyware". However, recent versions of these major firms home and business anti-virus products do include anti-spyware functions, albeit treated differently from viruses. Symantec Anti-Virus, for instance, categorizes spyware programs as "extended threats" and now offers real-time protection against these threats. Other Anti-spyware tools include FlexiSPY, Mobilespy, mSPY, TheWiSPY, and UMobix. Anti-spyware programs can combat spyware in two ways: Such programs inspect
11020-468: The blacklisting overturned, and NSO reportedly tried and failed multiple times to meet with the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security to attempt to obtain export waivers. In December 2021, 86 human rights organisations sent a joint letter calling on the EU to impose global sanctions against NSO Group and seek to "prohibit the sale, transfer, export and import of the Israeli company's surveillance technology" due to
11165-755: The blessing and backing of the U.S. government and U.S. intelligence in pursuing the acquisition as long as the Pegasus source code and the cache of zero-day vulnerabilities uncovered by NSO could be passed on to the other intelligence agencies of the Five Eyes . The Israeli authorities were reportedly willing to fulfill the latter and reluctant to comply with the former, and also insisted that Israel ultimately retain control over issuing export licences for NSO's products. The Israeli authorities were also opposed to allowing L3Harris' employees to join NSO's development team in NSO's Israeli headquarters. The talks were revealed to
11310-503: The capability to surveil undersea fiber-optic cables which deliver e-mails, Web pages, other electronic communications and phone calls from one continent to another at the speed of light. According to the Brazilian newspaper O Globo , the NSA spied on millions of emails and calls of Brazilian citizens, while Australia and New Zealand have been involved in the joint operation of the NSA's global analytical system XKeyscore . Among
11455-467: The case) of the client to begin deployment of Pegasus is to enter the target's phone number into the tool. Phantom is a phone hacking product marketed by Westbridge, the United States branch of NSO Group. According to a former NSO employee, "Phantom" is the brand name for the Pegasus in the U.S., but the two tools are otherwise identical. Israel required NSO Group to program Pegasus so as not to be able to target US phone numbers. NSO then launched Phantom for
11600-718: The chance of getting spyware on a system. Nonetheless, spyware remains a costly problem. When a large number of pieces of spyware have infected a Windows computer, the only remedy may involve backing up user data, and fully reinstalling the operating system . For instance, some spyware cannot be completely removed by Symantec, Microsoft, PC Tools. Many programmers and some commercial firms have released products designed to remove or block spyware. Programs such as PC Tools' Spyware Doctor , Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE and Patrick Kolla's Spybot - Search & Destroy rapidly gained popularity as tools to remove, and in some cases intercept, spyware programs. In December 2004, Microsoft acquired
11745-410: The co-founders of Novalpina Capital. Berkeley Research Group (BRG), a California-based consultancy firm, was subsequently handed control over the assets (including NSO). By the time of BRG's takeover, NSO Group was in perilous financial straits, having gone months without a new sale and in risk of missing its debt payments and its November 2021 payroll payments. NSO CEO Shalev Hulio suggested to BRG that
11890-475: The company after multiple legal fights between NSO and a US financial firm called Treo, which previously controlled the equity fund that held a majority stake in the Israeli firm. In late 2020, Vice Media published an article in which it reported that NSO Group had closed the Cyprus -based offices of Circles, the company it had acquired in 2014. The article, based on interviews with two former employees, described
12035-516: The company for $ 130 million. In 2014, the surveillance firm Circles (which produces is a phone geolocation tool) was acquired by Francisco Partners for $ 130 million, and thus became a corporate affiliate of NSO's. In 2015 Francisco was seeking to sell the company for up to $ 1 billion. Annual revenues were around $ 150 million in 2015. In June 2017, the company was put up for sale for more than $ 1 billion by Francisco Partners (roughly ten times what Francisco originally paid to acquire it in 2014). At
12180-481: The company should improve its financial standing by starting to sell its products to high-risk customers previously deemed unacceptable, responding to objections by joking that missing debt payments was risky too. BRG was categorically opposed to the suggestion despite acknowledging that selling to high-risk customers was the only realistic way of maintaining NSO's business operations. Hulio proposed increasing sales to Israel's western allies (including U.S. law enforcement,
12325-487: The computer. A typical Windows user has administrative privileges , mostly for convenience. Because of this, any program the user runs has unrestricted access to the system. As with other operating systems , Windows users are able to follow the principle of least privilege and use non- administrator accounts. Alternatively, they can reduce the privileges of specific vulnerable Internet-facing processes , such as Internet Explorer . Since Windows Vista is, by default,
12470-645: The contents of the Windows registry , operating system files, and installed programs , and remove files and entries which match a list of known spyware. Real-time protection from spyware works identically to real-time anti-virus protection: the software scans disk files at download time, and blocks the activity of components known to represent spyware. In some cases, it may also intercept attempts to install start-up items or to modify browser settings. Earlier versions of anti-spyware programs focused chiefly on detection and removal. Javacool Software's SpywareBlaster , one of
12615-600: The course of several months since June 2013, by the press in several nations from the trove leaked by the former NSA contractor Edward J. Snowden, who obtained the trove while working for Booz Allen Hamilton . George Brandis , the Attorney-General of Australia , asserted that Snowden's disclosure is the "most serious setback for Western intelligence since the Second World War ." As of December 2013 , global surveillance programs include: The NSA
12760-688: The default settings created for users and the language of terms-of-service agreements. In one documented example, on CBS/CNet News reported, on March 7, 2011, an analysis in The Wall Street Journal revealed the practice of Facebook and other websites of tracking users' browsing activity , which is linked to their identity, far beyond users' visits and activity on the Facebook site itself. The report stated: "Here's how it works. You go to Facebook, you log in, you spend some time there, and then ... you move on without logging out. Let's say
12905-478: The documents while working for Booz Allen Hamilton , one of the largest contractors for defense and intelligence in the United States. The initial simultaneous publication in June 2013 by The Washington Post and The Guardian continued throughout 2013. A small portion of the estimated full cache of documents was later published by other media outlets worldwide, most notably The New York Times (United States),
13050-528: The entire European internet traffic. GCHQ is collecting all data transmitted to and from the United Kingdom and Northern Europe via the undersea fibre optic telecommunications cable SEA-ME-WE 3 . The Security and Intelligence Division (SID) of Singapore co-operates with Australia in accessing and sharing communications carried by the SEA-ME-WE-3 cable. The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD)
13195-480: The exploit. In response to the alleged cyberattack, WhatsApp sued NSO. In June 2019, NSO began setting up a test facility in New Jersey for the FBI which had procured NSO's services, and began testing a version of Pegasus developed for U.S. government agencies to be used on U.S. phones. After two years of deliberations in the FBI and Department of Justice, the FBI decided not to deploy the tools for domestic use in
13340-436: The export of Pegasus to foreign governments, but not to private entities. Pegasus is compatible with iPhone and Android devices. It can be deployed remotely. Once deployed, it allows the client to access the target phone's data and sensors, including: location data, texts, emails, social media messages, files, camera, and microphone. The client-facing side of the tool is user friendly, and all that may be required (depending upon
13485-429: The first to offer real-time protection, blocked the installation of ActiveX -based spyware. Like most anti-virus software, many anti-spyware/adware tools require a frequently updated database of threats. As new spyware programs are released, anti-spyware developers discover and evaluate them, adding to the list of known spyware, which allows the software to detect and remove new spyware. As a result, anti-spyware software
13630-420: The former MI5 official David Shayler and the journalist James Bamford , who were followed by: In the aftermath of Snowden's revelations, The Pentagon concluded that Snowden committed the biggest theft of U.S. secrets in the history of the United States . In Australia, the coalition government described the leaks as the most damaging blow dealt to Australian intelligence in history. Sir David Omand ,
13775-551: The founder of Zone Labs , Gregor Freund, used the term in a press release for the ZoneAlarm Personal Firewall . Later in 2000, a parent using ZoneAlarm was alerted to the fact that Reader Rabbit , educational software marketed to children by the Mattel toy company, was surreptitiously sending data back to Mattel. Since then, "spyware" has taken on its present sense. According to a 2005 study by AOL and
13920-480: The grounds that more spyware-related annoyances increase the likelihood that users will take action to remove the programs. Keyloggers are sometimes part of malware packages downloaded onto computers without the owners' knowledge. Some keylogger software is freely available on the internet, while others are commercial or private applications. Most keyloggers allow not only keyboard keystrokes to be captured, they also are often capable of collecting screen captures from
14065-554: The individuals into making racist or anti-Israel remarks. Two of the individuals were surreptitiously recorded by the undercover operatives. Channel 12, an Israeli television channel, obtained and aired the secret recordings made by the undercover operatives shortly before the AP published the revelations. Channel 12 claimed the two individuals were attempting to smear NSO Group on behalf of Qatar. Channel 12 also confirmed that Black Cube undercover investigators were involved. Spyware Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software )
14210-545: The integration between the two companies as "awful" and stated that NSO would rely on Circles' Bulgarian office instead. According to Vice, this came just over a year after an activist group known as Access Now wrote to authorities in both Cyprus and Bulgaria, asking them to further scrutinise NSO exports. Access now had stated that they had received denials from both the Bulgarian and Cypriot authorities, with both countries stating that they had not provided export licenses to
14355-421: The interception of encrypted chats on Outlook.com , within five months after the service went into testing. NSA had access to Outlook.com emails because "Prism collects this data prior to encryption." In addition, Microsoft worked with the FBI to enable the NSA to gain access to its cloud storage service SkyDrive . An internal NSA document dating from August 3, 2012, described the PRISM surveillance program as
14500-499: The issue of the company's blacklisting in the U.S. In the months after the November 2021 blacklisting of NSO by the U.S. Department of Commerce that resulted in an U.S. export ban for the company, and amid a campaign by the Israeli government to find a way to prevent the floundering NSO from going under, the U.S. Commerce Department sent a list of questions to NSO about how its spyware products operate. In 2022, L3Harris Technologies ,
14645-440: The killed program. Likewise, some spyware will detect attempts to remove registry keys and immediately add them again. Usually, booting the infected computer in safe mode allows an anti-spyware program a better chance of removing persistent spyware. Killing the process tree may also work. To detect spyware, computer users have found several practices useful in addition to installing anti-spyware programs. Many users have installed
14790-425: The leaks as follows: Taken together, the revelations have brought to light a global surveillance system that cast off many of its historical restraints after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 . Secret legal authorities empowered the NSA to sweep in the telephone, Internet and location records of whole populations. The disclosure revealed specific details of the NSA's close cooperation with U.S. federal agencies such as
14935-465: The matter". Some of the companies were subsequently paid by GCHQ for their participation in the infiltration of the cables. According to the SZ, GCHQ has access to the majority of internet and telephone communications flowing throughout Europe, can listen to phone calls, read emails and text messages, see which websites internet users from all around the world are visiting. It can also retain and analyse nearly
15080-433: The military intelligence's highly selective advanced cyberweapons training programs. NSO seeks to uncover a surfeit of zero-day exploits in target devices to ensure smooth continuous access even as some of the security vulnerabilities exploited by NSO are inevitably discovered and patched, with labs in the company's Herzliya headquarters featuring racks stacked with phones being tested against new exploits. Pegasus spyware
15225-777: The monitored data traffic in Europe. For example, in December 2012, the NSA gathered on an average day metadata from some 15 million telephone connections and 10 million Internet datasets. The NSA also monitored the European Commission in Brussels and monitored EU diplomatic Facilities in Washington and at the United Nations by placing bugs in offices as well as infiltrating computer networks. The U.S. government made as part of its UPSTREAM data collection program deals with companies to ensure that it had access to and hence
15370-430: The months before his death. In May 2019, messaging service WhatsApp alleged that a spyware injection exploit targeting its calling feature was developed by NSO. WhatsApp stated that the exploit targeted 1,400 users in 20 countries, including "at least 100 human-rights defenders, journalists and other members of civil society". NSO denied involvement in selecting or targeting victims, but did not explicitly deny creating
15515-575: The most lucrative prospective market), but the November 2021 U.S. blacklisting of NSO subsequently ended the company's prospects of breaking into the U.S. market (Hulio then devised a plan to split up the company in order to circumvent the U.S. sanctions). According to the Financial Times , NSO also seemed to have been abandoned by the previously doting Israeli government due to a proliferation of Israeli companies offering comparable technologies (including some established by former NSO employees). In
15660-733: The necessary security clearance. Although the exact size of Snowden's disclosure remains unknown, the following estimates have been put up by various government officials: As a contractor of the NSA, Snowden was granted access to U.S. government documents along with top secret documents of several allied governments, via the exclusive Five Eyes network. Snowden claims that he currently does not physically possess any of these documents, having surrendered all copies to journalists he met in Hong Kong . According to his lawyer, Snowden has pledged not to release any documents while in Russia, leaving
15805-435: The next site you go to is The New York Times . Those buttons, without you clicking on them, have just reported back to Facebook and Twitter that you went there and also your identity within those accounts. Let's say you moved on to something like a site about depression. This one also has a tweet button, a Google widget, and those, too, can report back who you are and that you went there." The Wall Street Journal analysis
15950-582: The numerous allied facilities contributing to XKeyscore are four installations in Australia and one in New Zealand: O Globo released an NSA document titled " Primary FORNSAT Collection Operations ", which revealed the specific locations and codenames of the FORNSAT intercept stations in 2002. According to Edward Snowden, the NSA has established secret intelligence partnerships with many Western governments . The Foreign Affairs Directorate (FAD) of
16095-422: The operating system boots. Spyware can exploit this design to circumvent attempts at removal. The spyware typically links itself to each location in the registry that allows execution. Once running, the spyware will periodically check if any of these links are removed. If so, they will be automatically restored. This ensures that the spyware will execute when the operating system is booted, even if some (or most) of
16240-428: The owner of a shared, corporate, or public computer intentionally in order to monitor users. While the term spyware suggests software that monitors a user's computer, the functions of spyware can extend beyond simple monitoring. Spyware can collect almost any type of data, including personal information like internet surfing habits, user logins, and bank or credit account information. Spyware can also interfere with
16385-400: The paragraph about Facebook , below). In response to the emergence of spyware, a small industry has sprung up dealing in anti-spyware software. Running anti-spyware software has become a widely recognized element of computer security practices, especially for computers running Microsoft Windows . A number of jurisdictions have passed anti-spyware laws, which usually target any software that
16530-550: The police), Omer Bar-Lev , announced that he will be forming a commission of inquiry, to be chaired by a retired judge, and whose powers will basically be indistinguishable from a state commission. In September 2023, the Citizen Lab attributed with high confidence that an exploit of iOS 16.6 was being used to install Pegasus spyware on Apple devices without user interaction. Apple said that devices in Lockdown Mode
16675-517: The presence of a backdoor in its spyware tools. Israel, wary of angering the U.S. in the wake of the Snowden revelations , required NSO to prevent Pegasus from targeting American phone numbers. Israel has used Pegasus to advance its interests in the region, with Pegasus playing a role in negotiating the Abraham Accords . A New York Times investigation highlighted several instances in which
16820-457: The press. An acquisition by a U.S.-based corporation could have lifted the blacklisting of NSO by the U.S. which had barred NSO from receiving exports from U.S. companies, hindering NSO's operations. Experts consulted by The Guardian said that due to the blacklisting of NSO Group, a new corporate entity would likely have had to be created before the U.S. government would allow the acquisition. A senior White House official commented anonymously for
16965-440: The public by the press in June 2022, resulting in a scramble by the parties involved, with White House officials publicly condemning the negotiation in harsh terms, and L3Harris (which is heavily reliant on government contracts) reportedly notifying the U.S. government that they had abandoned the acquisition attempt. There were reportedly attempts to revive the negotiations in the weeks after the preceding negotiations were revealed by
17110-433: The registry links are removed. Spyware is mostly classified into four types: adware , system monitors, tracking including web tracking , and trojans ; examples of other notorious types include digital rights management capabilities that "phone home", keyloggers , rootkits , and web beacons . These four categories are not mutually exclusive and they have similar tactics in attacking networks and devices. The main goal
17255-518: The remaining portion of the majority stake, thus valuing the company at approximately $ 1 billion. The day after the acquisition, Novalpina attempted to address the concerns raised by Citizen Lab with a letter, stating their belief that NSO operates with sufficient integrity and caution. In July 2021, investors in Novalpina Capital stripped Novalpina Capital of control over its assets (including NSO) after an unresolved personal dispute amongst
17400-416: The researchers into making anti-Semitic or otherwise damaging remarks. After growing suspicious, one researcher contacted AP reporters. Together, they managed to arrange a sting during a meeting with a suspected undercover operative at a hotel luncheon with AP journalists secretly awaiting nearby; after the journalists approached the operative to question him, the operative fled, bumping into chairs and circling
17545-535: The responsibility for further disclosures solely to journalists. As of 2014, the following news outlets have accessed some of the documents provided by Snowden: Australian Broadcasting Corporation , Canadian Broadcasting Corporation , Channel 4 , Der Spiegel , El País , El Mundo , L'espresso , Le Monde , NBC , NRC Handelsblad , Dagbladet , O Globo , South China Morning Post , Süddeutsche Zeitung , Sveriges Television , The Guardian , The New York Times , and The Washington Post . In
17690-522: The revelation of the PRISM surveillance program (which collects the e-mail, voice, text and video chats of foreigners and an unknown number of Americans from Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Apple and other tech giants), was published simultaneously by The Guardian and The Washington Post . Der Spiegel revealed NSA spying on multiple diplomatic missions of the European Union and
17835-543: The risks NSO's technology poses for human rights globally. In January 2022, Calcalist published an investigatory piece detailing the widespread unlawful use of Pegasus by the Israeli Police . Although the Israeli Police formally denied this, some senior police officials have hinted that the claims were true. On February 1, the police admitted that there was, in fact, misuse of the software. On February 7,
17980-402: The room as he tried to get away. There also appeared to be two additional undercover operatives in the room. The operative that met the researcher appeared to be filming the researcher with a hidden camera during the meeting, and one of the operatives standing nearby appeared to be recording the meeting as well. The operative was later identified as a former Israeli security official. Responding to
18125-505: The sale of NSO products as a diplomatic bargaining chip to advance its foreign policy interests as well as limiting its sale to or its use against certain states to maintain good relations with certain states. Israel has faced criticism for approving the sale of NSO technologies to countries with poor human rights records. U.S. intelligence officials have also said the Israeli state presumably has backdoor access to data obtained by Pegasus. NSO denies being "a tool of Israeli diplomacy", and denies
18270-489: The sale of Pegasus to a particular government coincided with that government's increased support of Israel. Israel has used Pegasus sales in its diplomatic efforts to forge a united front against Iran, thus clearing the sale of the spyware to Azerbaijan , Morocco , the UAE , and Saudi Arabia . The Israeli government blocked the sale of Pegasus to Estonia and Ukraine for fear that Israel's relations with Russia would be damaged if
18415-477: The spyware author, the page contains code which attacks the browser and forces the download and installation of spyware. The installation of spyware frequently involves Internet Explorer . Its popularity and history of security issues have made it a frequent target. Its deep integration with the Windows environment make it susceptible to attack into the Windows operating system . Internet Explorer also serves as
18560-405: The spyware operator's affiliate tag on the user's activity – replacing any other tag, if there is one. The spyware operator is the only party that gains from this. The user has their choices thwarted, a legitimate affiliate loses revenue, networks' reputations are injured, and vendors are harmed by having to pay out affiliate revenues to an "affiliate" who is not party to a contract. Affiliate fraud
18705-505: The spyware was used against Russia. Israel initially authorised the export of Pegasus to Estonia (which made a $ 30 million down payment to obtain the system), but after a senior Russian official approached Israeli security agencies and informed them that Russia had learned of Estonia's attempts to obtain Pegasus, the Israeli Ministry of Defense decided to disallow Estonia from using Pegasus against any Russian phone numbers following
18850-491: The strategic harm in the period following the disclosures more heavily than their civic public benefit. In its first assessment of these disclosures, the Pentagon concluded that Snowden committed the biggest "theft" of U.S. secrets in the history of the United States . Sir David Omand , a former director of GCHQ , described Snowden's disclosure as the "most catastrophic loss to British intelligence ever". Snowden obtained
18995-437: The summer of 2021, with the New Jersey facility laying dormant as of early 2022. The DEA, Secret Service, and United States Africa Command had also held discussions with NSO which however did not proceed beyond that stage. In April 2020, Motherboard reported about an incident that occurred several years prior in which an NSO employee used a client's Pegasus tool to spy on a love interest (a female personal acquaintance) during
19140-544: The technology start-up sector during the mid-2000s. The pair founded a company - CommuniTake - which offered a tool that let cellphone tech support workers access the customers' devices (but necessitating that the customer grant permission to enable access). After a European intelligence agency expressed interest in the product, the pair realised they could instead develop a tool that could gain access to phones without user authorisation, and market it to security and intelligence agencies. Karmi, who served in military intelligence and
19285-427: The time it was put up for sale, NSO had almost 500 employees (up from around 50 in 2014). On February 14, 2019, Francisco Partners sold a majority (60%) stake of NSO back to co-founders Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, who were supported in the purchase by European private equity fund Novalpina Capital which specialises in investments in controversial companies. Hulio and Lavie invested $ 100 million, with Novalpina acquiring
19430-421: The user about it. These common spyware programs illustrate the diversity of behaviors found in these attacks. Note that as with computer viruses, researchers give names to spyware programs which may not be used by their creators. Programs may be grouped into "families" based not on shared program code, but on common behaviors, or by "following the money" of apparent financial or business connections. For instance,
19575-749: The “Circles Cloud”, is capable of interconnecting with telecommunications companies across the globe. In December 2020, the Citizen Lab reported that Supreme Council on National Security (SCNS) of the United Arab Emirates was set to receive both these systems. In a lawsuit filed against the NSO group in Israel , emails revealed links between Circles and several customers in the United Arab Emirates. Documents also revealed that Circles sent targets’ locations and phone records to
19720-538: Was found to be using rootkits in its XCP digital rights management technology Like spyware, not only was it difficult to detect and uninstall, it was so poorly written that most efforts to remove it could have rendered computers unable to function. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott filed suit, and three separate class-action suits were filed. Sony BMG later provided a workaround on its website to help users remove it. Beginning on April 25, 2006, Microsoft's Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications application
19865-440: Was able to block the loophole and issued an update to fix the vulnerability. NSO Groups offers the smartphone spyware tool Pegasus to government clients for the exclusive intended purpose of combating crime and terrorism. The first version of Pegasus was finalised in 2011. Pegasus spyware is classified as a weapon by Israel and any export of the technology must be approved by the government. The Israeli Ministry of Defense licenses
20010-407: Was also getting data directly from telecommunications companies code-named Artifice (Verizon), Lithium (AT&T), Serenade, SteelKnight, and X. The real identities of the companies behind these code names were not included in the Snowden document dump because they were protected as Exceptionally Controlled Information which prevents wide circulation even to those (like Snowden) who otherwise have
20155-583: Was installed on most Windows PCs as a "critical security update". While the main purpose of this deliberately uninstallable application is to ensure the copy of Windows on the machine was lawfully purchased and installed, it also installs software that has been accused of " phoning home " on a daily basis, like spyware. It can be removed with the RemoveWGA tool. Stalkerware is spyware that has been used to monitor electronic activities of partners in intimate relationships. At least one software package, Loverspy,
20300-487: Was investigated by the FBI . The Federal Trade Commission estimates that 27.3 million Americans have been victims of identity theft, and that financial losses from identity theft totaled nearly $ 48 billion for businesses and financial institutions and at least $ 5 billion in out-of-pocket expenses for individuals. Some copy-protection technologies have borrowed from spyware. In 2005, Sony BMG Music Entertainment
20445-497: Was later terminated due to operational and resource constraints. It was subsequently replaced by newer surveillance programs such as ShellTrumpet, which " processed its one trillionth metadata record " by the end of December 2012. The NSA follows specific procedures to target non-U.S. persons and to minimize data collection from U.S. persons. These court-approved policies allow the NSA to: According to Boundless Informant , over 97 billion pieces of intelligence were collected over
20590-539: Was researched by Brian Kennish, founder of Disconnect, Inc. Spyware does not necessarily spread in the same way as a virus or worm because infected systems generally do not attempt to transmit or copy the software to other computers. Instead, spyware installs itself on a system by deceiving the user or by exploiting software vulnerabilities. Most spyware is installed without knowledge, or by using deceptive tactics. Spyware may try to deceive users by bundling itself with desirable software. Other common tactics are using
20735-769: Was specifically marketed for this purpose. Depending on local laws regarding communal/marital property, observing a partner's online activity without their consent may be illegal; the author of Loverspy and several users of the product were indicted in California in 2005 on charges of wiretapping and various computer crimes. Anti-spyware programs often report Web advertisers' HTTP cookies , the small text files that track browsing activity, as spyware. While they are not always inherently malicious, many users object to third parties using space on their personal computers for their business purposes, and many anti-spyware programs offer to remove them. Shameware or " accountability software "
20880-488: Was stated to have been founded as a "bogus phone company" in 2015 by Citizen Lab citing IntelligenceOnline , a part of Indigo Publications . This report was reprinted by the Bulgarian investigation publication Bivol in December 2020, which appended it with public registry documents which indicated that the company's Bulgarian office had grown to employ up to 150 people and had received two loans worth about 275 million American dollars in 2017 from two offshore companies and
21025-419: Was the primary browser are particularly vulnerable to such attacks, not only because IE was the most widely used, but also because its tight integration with Windows allows spyware access to crucial parts of the operating system. Before Internet Explorer 6 SP2 was released as part of Windows XP Service Pack 2 , the browser would automatically display an installation window for any ActiveX component that
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