Jake Moore, former head of digital forensics at a UK police force and now global cybersecurity advisor at ESET, said in a statement that it was absolutely necessary to remove such accounts.
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“These companies are part of a vast industry that provides indiscriminately intrusive software tools and surveillance services to every customer – no matter who they target or what human rights violations they may facilitate,” they added. “The global surveillance-for-hire industry targets people over the Internet to gather information, manipulate them into divulging information and compromising their devices and accounts,” wrote David Agranovich, director of threat disruption, and Mike Dvilyanski, head of Meta’s cyber espionage investigation. The companies had targeted people, including journalists and human rights activists, in over 100 countries on behalf of their clients, Meta said, adding that they created fake accounts, befriended targets and used hacking methods to gain information. The company, led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, said around 1,500 accounts associated with the seven companies have been removed from its platforms. Some did all three while others focused on one or two. Meta said the seven companies carried out a combination of education, engagement and exploitation. Four of them are in Israel, one in India, one in North Macedonia and the other in China.Ī Cobwebs spokesman told CNBC, “Cobwebs only operates under the law and adheres to strict data protection standards.” None of the other companies immediately responded to a CNBC request for comment. Actions have been taken against Cobwebs Technologies, Cognite, Black Cube, Blue Hawk CI, BellTroX, Cytrox and an unknown Chinese company.
Seven “surveillance for hire” companies have also been banned from Metas’ platforms, the company said. Meta, which also owns and operates Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, said in a blog post Thursday that it alerted the people it believes have been attacked by the malicious activity. A worker picks up trash in front of a new logo and the name “Meta” on the sign outside Facebook headquarters on Octoin Menlo Park, Calif.Īccording to Meta, around 50,000 Facebook users have been targeted by private surveillance companies.