Discover-Tech, an Israeli advertising firm previously linked to the delivery of zero-click spyware, is the top bidder for Starlink ad impressions in 105 countries, according to a new report from Reuters. Researchers say it all points to a large-scale tracking effort aimed at users of SpaceX’s satellite internet service.
John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, posted on X that data from TrendAI suggest the existence of a “worldwide surveillance op targeting @Starlink users.”
Discover-Tech was previously named in Citizen Lab’s October 15th report as the buyer of ordinary-looking ads that delivered Candiru spyware to devices at Al Jazeera without any user interaction. Candiru is an Israeli mercenary spyware vendor (now rebranded as Integrity Labs) that develops tools capable of silently compromising phones and computers. In 2021, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security added Candiru to their trade restriction list, known as the Entity List, over concerns it supplied surveillance technology used against journalists, activists, and government officials.
I really want to post this to r/IndiaTech on reddit. Few of the fellas there are simps for Starlink because a village with hundreds to a few thousands of people need it (spoiler alert: they don’t. The government owned company BSNL is already laying fibre in villages).
But I don’t have an account ughh.
It’s a shame how the Modi regime has defunded BSNL to crap, selling its assets off to Ambani, but it still keeps on chugging.
The real culprit sounds like web itself, being designed so that browsers can deliver 0-click spyware. Once that capability exists, of course baddies will use it. Surprise directed at the baddies is almost completely misplaced.
The real culprit is Earth itself, supporting millions of baddies by design.
That’s not helpful, there are actually things we can do to mitigate the damage that bad actors can do and limit their power.
Who could have possibly seen this coming?
“…posted on X”
I mean, the Venn diagram of X users and Starlink users is a circle.
