Google unmasks 5 spyware firms from Italy, Greece and Spain that infect phones all over the world،
Wow, this Mediterranean climate is really something! Five companies from southern Europe have been arrested by Google and accused of producing spyware that infects and affects phones around the world.
The search engine giant said these five Italian, Greek and Spanish companies “enabled the use of dangerous hacking tools” and urged the United States and its allies to do more to combat the software industry spies (via Reuters).
Many of these companies claim that their products are intended for exclusive use by governments around the world for reasons of national security, but spyware is often used to spy on civil society. Not long ago, Israeli company NSO's Pegasus spyware made headlines after reports that it was being used to spy on many people around the world.
Besides NSO, there are many other companies that “contribute to the proliferation of malicious spying technologies,” the report said. Research from Google's TAG threat hunting team indicates:
Demand from government customers remains strong, and our findings highlight the extent to which commercial spyware vendors have proliferated their hacking and spyware capabilities, weakening Internet security for everyone. The private sector is now responsible for a significant portion of the most sophisticated tools we detect.
Among the companies accused of hacking phones by bypassing iOS and Android security measures are Italian companies Cy4Gate, RCS Labs and Negg Group, Greek company Intellexa and Spain's Variston.
The Negg Group website says the company focuses on cybersecurity, but Google has said its software has been used to spy on people in Italy, Malaysia and Kazakhstan.
Variston created software that infected users' phones via Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox browsers or iOS applications.
The five companies did not respond to Reuters for comment or could not be reached for comment.
