Meta (formerly Facebook) reported blocking Facebook and Instagram accounts of seven companies that provide services related to espionage and cyber attacks (so-called cyber-mecenaries).
The report states that the services of these seven companies were used against activists, journalists, dissidents, critics of authoritarian regimes, as well as representatives of minorities, while the companies themselves claimed that their spyware and hacking tools were used only to help catch criminals and terrorists. Companies have used more than 1,500 fake accounts to attack social media users.Facebook has already warned users of the incident that were targeted by spy attacks (there were about 50,000 of them), and shared its findings with experts from other companies, security researchers and politicians to take appropriate actions.
Let me remind you that we also recently reported that Facebook Ditches Facial Recognition and Will Delete Billion Users’ Data.
According to Citizen Labs specialists, who have repeatedly studied similar spyware campaigns, the devices of some people who have become victims of such surveillance are infected with more than one malware and are often attacked by several attackers at once.
The blocked list includes:
- Cobwebs Technologies (Israel, 200 accounts): dealt with some phases in the surveillance chain, including reconnaissance and interaction with the target;
- Cognyte (formerly WebintPro, Israel, 100 accounts): handled some of the phases in the surveillance chain, including reconnaissance and target interaction;
- Black Cube (Israel, 300 accounts): dealt with some phases in the surveillance chain, including reconnaissance and interaction with the target, exploitation;
- Bluehawk CI (Israel, 100 accounts): dealt with some phases in the surveillance chain, including reconnaissance and interaction with the target, exploitation;
- BellTroX (India, 400 accounts): dealt with some phases in the surveillance chain, including reconnaissance and interaction with the target, exploitation;
- Cytrox (North Macedonia, 300 accounts): Mainly operational;
- Unnamed Company (China, 100 accounts): Handled some of the phases in the surveillance chain, including reconnaissance and interaction with the target, exploitation.
Facebook reportedly sent warnings about possible sanctions to six of the seven listed companies, and these are the latest warnings before filing a lawsuit (as happened with NSO Group in 2019).
You might also be interested in the news that Facebook expands bug bounty program to combat scraping.
