The U.S. has added two European spyware firms, Intellexa and Cytrox, to its blacklist for constructing software to observe Meta users, politicians, activists, and reporters across the globe. As a result, they will probably be unable to use American technology, severely limiting their abilities. Previous administrations have used the Bureau of Industry and Security's export control capabilities to contain the sway of Chinese and Russian actors.
The Commerce Department declared on Tuesday the blacklisting of two European cyber firms that build spyware software, including technology used to surveil Meta users and reportedly at least one Meta employee. The firms, Intellexa and Cytrox, were mentioned together in a Bureau of Industry and Security press release and have subsidiaries in Greece, Ireland, Hungary and North Macedonia. Cytrox creates the spyware named Predator, which Citizen Lab analyzed in 2021 and found to have been utilized by oppressive governments to infiltrate the cellphones of activists, politicians and journalists. Both firms have been placed on the Commerce's "Entity List", which forbids U.S. organizations from supplying them with technology, data or intellectual property.This follows a December 2021 Meta warning to thousands of Facebook users that they had been targeted by spyware-for-hire software, including Predator.Intellexa's other espionage product Nebula is an instrument for collecting and analyzing social media data that is pitched to law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Tal Dilian, Intellexa's founder, is an "intelligence expert" who has served in the Israel Defense Forces for over 25 years and Intellexa's website states that they build and integrate technologies which equip law enforcement and intelligence agencies with the most advanced data collection and analytic methods.The New York Times reported on Intellexa's Predator being marketed to a Ukrainian intelligence agency and used by Greek intelligence to spy on a Meta trust and safety employee. The Biden administration has demonstrated a greater willingness to designate foreign companies and prevent them from accessing U.S. technology, following the Trump administration's successful implementation of export controls against Huawei. The Commerce Department has since added high-end semiconductor and networking technology to the export control list, hindering Chinese and Russian entities from accessing this technology.
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