Citizen Lab researchers say two Tel Aviv-based firms—spyware vendor Candiru, known for assisting governments in hacking phones, and ad tech company Discover Tech—used manipulated web ads to install surveillance spyware on 45 devices at Qatari broadca

2026-10-15

Citizen Lab researchers say two Tel Aviv-based firms—spyware vendor Candiru, known for assisting governments in hacking phones, and ad tech company Discover Tech—used manipulated web ads to install surveillance spyware on 45 devices at Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera during 2024–25. The report says Discover Tech embedded malicious code in ads to exfiltrate data, ran campaigns across multiple major ad networks including Alphabet’s ad network, and had appeared on approved vendor lists maintained by Google and IAB Europe.