Unmasking the Latest Hacker News: Staying Cyber-Secure in a Digital World

July 19, 2023

The US government has recently taken action against two foreign commercial spyware vendors, Cytrox and Intellexa. These suppliers have been placed on an economic blacklist as a result of their use of cyber exploits to gain unauthorized access to equipment. This move endangers the privacy and security of persons and businesses globally.

The economic blocklist includes these firms' corporate holdings in Hungary (Cytrox Holdings Crt), North Macedonia (Cytrox AD), Greece (Intellexa S.A.), and Ireland (Intellexa Limited). As a reisult, US corporations are no longer permitted to conduct business with these entities.

The Commerce Department's decision underscores rising concern about the role of surveillance technology in enabling repressive tactics and human rights violations. According to the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), by limiting these entities' access to commodities, software, and technology that could be used to construct surveillance tools, there is an attempt to reduce the possibility of misuse in human rights breaches or abuses.

Cytrox, in particular, is notorious for developing Predator, a mobile mercenary malware that is similar to NSO Group's Pegasus. According to studies from the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, it operates inside the Intellexa Alliance, a marketing consortium of mercenary surveillance companies that emerged in 2019.

This action by the United States government represents an important step in addressing possible concerns posed by commercial spyware providers, and it intends to protect privacy and security on a worldwide scale.

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