US Imposes Sanctions on Two European Spyware Companies
On Tuesday, the U.S. Commerce Department included two spyware companies from Europe in its technology export blacklist. These companies were targeted for creating surveillance tools that were considered a threat to U.S. national security, as well as the privacy and integrity of individuals and organizations globally.
Such tools are regularly used for political repression and other human rights abuses, including spying on journalists and intimidating political dissidents.
The companies targeted by the sanctions are Intellexa S.A. in Greece, Cytrox in Hungary and related entities in Ireland and Macedonia. Intellexa and Cytrox have been linked to the Predator spy programs, whose reported use in Greece helped lead to the resignation of two top government officials, including the director of national intelligence, last year.
Commercial spyware companies that are already under the Ministry of Commerce’s so-called on the list of entities—which effectively makes it illegal for US companies to do business with them—is Israel’s NSO Group, maker of the much better-known Pegasus spyware. It was added in November 2021.
The exact business relationship between Intellexa and Cytrox is unclear, and the Ministry of Commerce did not specify it.
Tuesday’s blacklist follows an order issued by the White House in March that says the uncontrolled spread of mercenary spying programs threatens national security. Dozens of US government employees were found to have been targeted by Pegasus.
In December 2021, digital cryptographers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab discovered the iPhone of an exiled Egyptian dissident leading the Predator spy program. In a joint investigation with Facebook, Citizen Lab found that Cytrox had customers in Armenia, Greece, Indonesia, Madagascar, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Serbia.
At the time, Cytrox was part of a shadowy consortium of companies under the umbrella of Intellexa, which was formed in 2019 to compete with NSO Group. Its founder was former Israeli military officer Tal Dilian.
A message left for Dilian seeking comment was not immediately returned.
