The company that owns Facebook, Meta, is denouncing private surveillance companies for computer hacking and other abuses, claiming in a report published on Thursday (16) that they spied on about 50,000 users of its platforms.
The company’s fight with spy firms comes amid a broader movement of US technology companies, lawmakers and the government of US President Joe Biden against digital spy service providers, notably Israeli spyware company NSO Group , which made the list earlier this month after weeks of revelations.
Meta is already suing the NSO in the US Court. Nathaniel Gleicher, director of security policy at Meta, told Reuters that Thursday’s action was intended to signal that “the rental surveillance industry is much broader than a company.”
Meta’s report said it was suspending about 1,500 accounts, mostly fake, managed by seven organizations on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. The company said the entities are targeting people in more than 100 countries.
Meta did not explain how it identified the surveillance companies, but it operates some of the largest social and communication networks in the world and regularly advertises its ability to find and remove malicious agents from its platforms.
Among them is Israel’s Black Cube, which has become known for using its spies to benefit former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, arrested for rape and harassment. Meta said the intelligence company is using phantom profiles to chat with its targets online and get their emails, “probably for later ‘phishing’ attacks.”
In a statement, Black Cube said it “does not engage in any phishing or hacking” and that the company has routinely ensured that “all activities of our agents are in full compliance with local laws.”
Others denounced by Meta include BellTroX, an Indian cyber mercenary company, and by Internet surveillance organization Citizen Lab last year, an Israeli company called Bluehawk and a European company Cytrox — all accused by Meta of hacking.
Cognyte, which was spun off from security giant Verint Systems in February, and Israeli company Cobwebs Technologies were accused not of hacking but of using fake profiles to trick people into revealing private data.
Cognyte, Verint and Bluehawk did not respond to the report.
In an email, Cobwebs spokesman Meital Levi Tal said the company used open sources and that its products “are not invasive at all.” Messages sent to Ivo Malinovski — who until recently identified himself as Cytrox’s chief executive on LinkedIn — had no immediate response.
BellTroX founder Sumit Gupta has not responded since his company was terminated last year. Before, he had already denied any wrongdoing.
Gleicher declined to identify any of the targets by name, but Citizen Lab, in a report published at the same time as Meta, said one of Cytrox’s victims was Egyptian opposition figure Ayman Nour.
Nour blamed the Egyptian government for the espionage, telling Reuters in an interview in Istanbul that he had long suspected he was under surveillance by local authorities.
“For the first time I have proof,” he said.
Egyptian authorities did not respond to a request for comment.
Gleicher said other targets for spy firms include celebrities, politicians, journalists, lawyers, executives and ordinary citizens. Friends and family members of the targets were also included in the spy campaigns, he said.
Meta cybersecurity director David Agranovich said he hoped Thursday’s announcement would “kick start the disruption in the rental surveillance market,” but it remains to be seen whether it will only be a temporary setback for the companies involved. Two of them, Black Cube and BellTroX, have bounced back after being involved in previous spy scandals.
Gleicher said that targets of spy companies would receive automatic warnings, but that Facebook would not identify the specific companies involved or their customers. That’s despite the fact that Facebook said it had identified several clients of Cobwebs, Cognyte, Cytrox and Black Cube — the latter of which includes law firms.
Marta Pardavi, one of several Hungarian human rights defenders who say they were targets of Black Cube in 2017 and 2018, said she was pleased with the news of the Facebook report but wanted more information.
“They cite law firms,” she said. “But law firms have clients. Who are these clients?”
Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves
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