US Sanctions Commercial Spyware Group

The US has announced new sanctions against Intellexa, a Greece-based commercial spyware company whose Predator tool has reportedly been used to spy on dissidents, journalists, political candidates and opposition figures around the world.

Predator has been deployed since at least 2019 to infect Android and iPhone phones and other devices, giving access to cameras, microphones and any data or files stored on the device, according to researchers.

The tool can take over devices via one-click attacks or zero-click methods that require no user interaction.

The Biden administration previously said it was tracking a campaign targeting more than 50 US government workers in more than 10 countries using commercial spyware.

‘Accountability’

Predator was deployed against Meta security policy manager Artemis Seaford in 2021 on behalf of the Greek national intelligence agency, The New York Times reported.

Intellexa was sanctioned last year with more sanctions added in March, but senior administration officials said at a press event on Monday that more was needed to keep in check the company’s “opaque web of corporate entities, which are designed to avoid accountability”.

Since the initial sanctions Intellexa has continued selling Predator through other holding companies, officials said.

“These sanctions are the next step in our continued effort to deny problematic vendors safe haven across jurisdictions, and also demonstrates that there will be accountability measures regardless of corporate structures and shell games that they may be playing now,” an official said.

The new sanctions target Felix Bitzios, owner of a company within the Intellexa consortium used to sell Predator to an unnamed foreign government; Andrea Gambazzi, who ran an entity used to process financial transactions for other consortium entities; and other consortium employees including Merom Harpaz, Panagiota Karaoli and Artemis Artemiou.

‘Reckless propagation’

The Treasury Department also sanctioned Aliada Group, based in the British Virgin Islands, which was used to transfer tens of millions of dollars to Intellexa.

Intellexa founder Tal Jonathan Dilian, a former Israeli military officer who created the company in 2019, was sanctioned in March along with Sara Hamou, a corporate offshoring specialist who provided managerial services to Intellexa.

Officials have said the Intellexa sanctions were the first time a company has been penalised in such a way for the misuse of spyware.

“The United States will not tolerate the reckless propagation of disruptive technologies that threatens our national security and undermines the privacy and civil liberties of our citizens,” said Bradley Smith, acting under secretary of Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence.

“We will continue to hold accountable those that seek to enable the proliferation of exploitative technologies, while also encouraging the responsible development of technologies that align with international standards.”

Continued sale

Researchers said last week that since the March sanctions Predator has continued to be sold to officials in governments allegedly including Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, United Arab Emirates and Madagascar.

The spyware has potentially been used in Angola, Armenia, Botswana, Egypt, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, Oman, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and Trinidad and Tobago, among other places, according to researchers.