CITIZENLAB DETAILS NEW SPYWARE TRIGGERED BY ONLINE ADVERTISING

Summary from the TLDR Marketing newsletter

Discover-Tech, an Israeli firm presenting itself as an ad vendor, displayed 442 million ads on more than 120,000 websites and apps, including the BBC, The New York Times, and Duolingo. Some of those ads carried zero-click spyware that infected phones and computers simply by appearing on screen, with targets ranging from Al Jazeera journalists to NATO and NVIDIA staff. It is the first confirmed case of government-backed zero-click spyware delivered through online ads. Google has since blocked Discover-Tech from its ad platforms.