Facebook exposes firms using hacking tools, fake personas to monitor people globally
A vast network of surveillance-for-hire firms was exposed that are using hacking tools to monitor people around the world.
WASHINGTON: A vast network of surveillance-for-hire firms was exposed by the cybersecurity researchers from Facebook and a university that are using hacking tools and hundreds of fake personas to monitor journalists, dissidents and politicians around the world.
Cybersecurity researchers from Facebook and a university have exposed a vast network of activity from surveillance-for-hire firms from India to Israel that they claim has used hacking tools and hundreds of fake personas to monitor journalists, dissidents and politicians around the world.
According to a report, the surveillance-for-hire firms are spread from India to Israel while hundreds of social media accounts of Facebook and Instagram were taken down by Meta that had been tied to seven different spy organisations.
The spy organization also included Black Cube, the intelligence firm that disgraced media mogul Harvey Weinstein allegedly hired to track actresses and journalists, New Yorker reported.
Around 50,000 people had been notified about being targeted in one way or another by such firms, said Facebook parent company, Meta.
The investigation was conducted by Meta and the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab to probe into a booming private spy business.
Citizen Lab, a digital rights research centre at the University of Toronto, discovered invasive spyware allegedly built by one of the surveillance firms, Cytrox, on the phone of former Egyptian presidential candidate Ayman Nour, a critic of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
“While these ‘cyber mercenaries’ often claim that their services only target criminals and terrorists, our months-long investigation concluded that the targeting is in fact indiscriminate,” and includes critics of authoritarian regimes and human rights activists, Meta researchers said in a report published Thursday.
The seven surveillance firms and organizations that Meta investigated offer clients a range of services, from easy-to-use hacking tools for infiltrating mobile phones, to access to social media accounts to monitor targets.
Black Cube’s services involved posing as film producers, graduate students and non-government organization (NGO) workers in an effort to surveil targets around the world, CNN reported.
Another Israeli firm, Bluehawk CI, used social media accounts to pose as journalists for Fox News and other news outlets in an effort to trick their targets into being interviewed on camera, according to Meta.
In addition to Black Cube, Bluehawk and Cytrox, Meta said it disabled Facebook and Instagram accounts tied to Israeli firms Cobwebs Technologies and Cognyte; Indian firm BellTroX; and an entity in China that Meta did not identify.
CobWebs and Black Cube have denied the claims, whereas, BellTroX could not be reached for comment nor the other three firms have responded to CNN’s requests for comment.
Facebook rebranded itself as Meta in October amid intense scrutiny from US lawmakers over how the platform handles misinformation that causes real-world harm.
