{"id":56078,"date":"2024-02-13T19:03:53","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T19:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/?p=56078"},"modified":"2024-02-13T17:00:03","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T17:00:03","slug":"google-names-spyware-companies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/google-names-spyware-companies","title":{"rendered":"Google names spyware companies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Angola. <\/strong><\/span>Google has called out a series of surveillance software companies that it said were enabling the use of dangerous hacking tools, and urged the US and its allies to do more to rein in the spyware industry.<\/b><\/p>\n

Spyware firms often say their products are meant for the use of governments for national security. However, the technology has been repeatedly found to have been used to hack into the phones of civil society, political opposition and journalists in the last decade.<\/p>\n

The industry has faced increasing scrutiny since the Israeli firm NSO\u2019s Pegasus spyware was found on the phones of various people globally, including human rights defenders.<\/p>\n

NSO is the same company contracted by the government of Ghana to provide spy equipment which can be used to remotely hack into gadgets and eavesdrop on private communications.<\/p>\n

In a report on Tuesday, Google researchers said that while NSO is better known, there are dozens of smaller firms helping the proliferation of spy technology for malicious uses.<\/p>\n

The findings by Google are significant because the company has some of the best visibility into hacking campaigns globally, given the vast breadth of its online offerings.<\/p>\n

\u201cDemand from government customers remains strong and our findings underscore the extent to which commercial spyware vendors have proliferated hacking and spyware capabilities that weaken the safety of the internet for all,\u201d researchers from Google\u2019s TAG threat-hunting team said in the report. \u201cThe private sector is now responsible for a significant portion of the most sophisticated tools we detect.\u201d<\/p>\n

The US and several of its allies committed last year to work towards curbing the surveillance software industry, after at least 50 US government employees in 10 countries were found to have been targeted by spyware.<\/p>\n

The Google researchers named a roster of firms that offer a range of services to break into phones, and have been evolving to bypass the latest security measures by Apple and Google for their phone operating systems, iOS and Android. They include the Italian firms Cy4Gate and RCS Labs, Greek company Intellexa, and the lesser-known Italian company Negg Group and Spain\u2019s Variston.<\/p>\n

Negg Group\u2019s website says the company is focused on cybersecurity, but Google said its software was found to have been used to spy on people in Italy, Malaysia, and Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n

Variston made software that infected user\u2019s devices via the browsers Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox or iOS apps, Google said, adding that another company, Protected AE \u2014 also known as Protect Electronic Systems \u2014 used a similar targeting technique.<\/p>\n

The five companies either did not respond to requests for comment, or were not reachable.<\/p>\n

The Google report comes a day after the US announced a new visa restriction policy for those it said were misusing commercial spyware, allowing the placing of restrictions on individuals believed to have been involved in the abuse of commercial spyware, as well as for those who facilitate such actions and benefit from it.<\/p>\n

\u201cLimiting spyware vendors\u2019 ability to operate in the US helps to change the incentive structure which has allowed their continued growth,\u201d Google said in a statement.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Angola<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Angola. Google has called out a series of surveillance software companies that it said were enabling the use of dangerous hacking tools, and urged the US and its allies to do more to rein in the spyware industry. Spyware firms often say their products are meant for the use of governments for national […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":56077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[233,337,329],"class_list":["post-56078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-angola","tag-angola"],"yoast_head":"\nGoogle names spyware companies - Angola<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Google has called out a series of surveillance software companies that it said were enabling the use of dangerous hac ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/google-names-spyware-companies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Google names spyware companies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Google has called out a series of surveillance software companies that it said were enabling the use of dangerous hac ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/google-names-spyware-companies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Angola\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-13T19:03:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2024\/02\/sm_1707830634.410582.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1641\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1092\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/google-names-spyware-companies#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/google-names-spyware-companies\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Google names spyware companies\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-13T19:03:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/google-names-spyware-companies\"},\"wordCount\":529,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/google-names-spyware-companies#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/angola\/sites\/65\/2024\/02\/sm_1707830634.410582.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Angola\",\"Angola\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/google-names-spyware-companies#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/google-names-spyware-companies\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/angola\/all-news\/google-names-spyware-companies\",\"name\":\"Google names spyware companies - 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