Conflict & Security
Citizen Lab: Israeli ad firm's platform delivered zero-click spyware
October 15, 2026 at 12:59 PM · Updated 1d ago
5 reports · 2 in Arabic, 3 in English · over 7 hours
AJAl Jazeera Arabic
سيتيزن لاب: استهداف 45 جهاز ويندوز في شبكة الجزيرة ببرنامج تجسس إسرائيلي
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AJAl Jazeera English
Israeli ad-tech firm helped place spyware on Al Jazeera devices
(opens the publisher’s site)
يواليوم السابع
تقرير: شركة إسرائيلية استهدفت شبكة الجزيرة ببرمجيات تجسس عبر الإعلانات
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TGThe Guardian
Israeli firm’s digital ads enabling installation of ‘zero-click’ spyware, researchers say
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TETechCrunch
Citizen Lab says governments are abusing online ads to hack people with ‘zero-click’ spyware
(opens the publisher’s site)Citizen Lab reported Thursday that Israeli advertising firm Discover-Tech's platform enabled zero-click spyware to be delivered to targets through online ads.
- Citizen Lab said Discover-Tech served millions of ads since 2024 that delivered spyware to devices without victims' interaction.
- Citizen Lab said the campaign compromised at least 45 Windows computers at Al Jazeera, hacked in 2024 and 2025 via Candiru spyware.
- Related research by Confiant showed the ads appeared on devices on networks of European and US government entities, the UN, NATO, the ICC and the IAEA.
- Citizen Lab researcher Bill Marczak called the findings the first concrete technical evidence of ads being used to auto-hack targets and urged users to block ads.
- Al Jazeera condemned the targeting of its journalists' devices as an assault on press freedom and pledged to protect its systems.