A Citizen Lab investigation says an Israeli ad-tech company helped deliver spyware to dozens of Al Jazeera and other company devices through advertisements.
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01Summary
- 01Al Jazeera said on Thursday it condemns the targeting of its employees’ devices with spyware.
- 02Citizen Lab said Israeli firm Discover-Tech bought advertisements with built-in spyware that directed devices to Candiru malware.
- 03Al Jazeera’s internal technology team first spotted unusual activity on some journalists’ devices in 2024, and it continued into 2025.
- 04The report says the case is the first-known instance of "zero-click" targeted advertising used to install spyware.
- 05Confiant said some Discover-Tech advertisements also appeared in networks used by the Pentagon, the UN nuclear watchdog and the International Criminal Court.
02Why it matters
The case shows how advertising systems can be used to spread spyware to journalists and other users without them clicking anything. It also raises wider concerns about the security of major institutions and the targeting of press staff.
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