Israeli Company Reportedly Spreads Spyware Through Online Ads

According to joint research by security researchers at Citizen Lab and Confiant, an Israeli ad-technology company worked with spyware firms to infect devices, including at Al Jazeera, merely by showing users an online ad. This is the first time researchers have found technical evidence of a zero-click attack, a type of hack that […]

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This is the first time researchers have found evidence of a zero-click attack carried out through targeted advertising.

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A news writer covering streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media and more. He was previously a writer and editor for MUO.

An Israeli ad tech company has worked with spyware companies to infect devices, including in Al Jazeera, according to joint research by security researchers at Citizen Lab and Confiant. As previously reported by NBC News, this is the first time researchers have found technical evidence of a zero-click attack — a type of hack that requires no user action.

The ad company, called Discover-Tech, bills itself as a regular online ad agency, but researchers say it actually provides a pipeline for hacking groups to plant malicious ads across the web. According to the investigation, it runs a platform called Controllium that allows its spyware partners to "accurately profile and anonymize millions of people, fingerprint their devices and target them with zero-click hacking." It also allows them to target a user for infection or profiling using their IP address, mobile ad ID or browser ID.

One of the groups Discover-Tech works with is Candiru, an Israeli spyware company blacklisted by the US government. In 2024 and 2025, Discover-Tech Ads delivered Candiru-related spyware to Al Jazeera, a Qatar-based news network. The researchers say these companies are targeting "at least" 45 devices in 2024 and 2025 in this medium.

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