Researchers say Israeli ad firm Discover-Tech aided spyware operations

Two research groups reported on Thursday that Discover-Tech, an Israeli digital advertising agency, used a network of online ads to track internet users and assist in hacking their devices. The reports, issued by the Canadian cyber watchdog group Citizen Lab and the New York advertising security firm Confiant, state that Discover-Tech provided access to advertising platforms run by Google, Comcast, and Russia’s Yandex to Candiru, a spyware company blacklisted by the U.S. government, as well as other Israeli surveillance firms.

Scope of the Ad Network

According to Citizen Lab, Discover-Tech’s advertisements, which often promoted ordinary products such as phones or earbuds, reached more than 120,000 websites and 75,000 apps. The researchers stated that users visiting these sites or using these apps could be identified and tracked by Discover-Tech. In some instances, the firm attempted to extract phone numbers from smartphone users. The reports noted that the ads only needed to load on a website for the tracking to occur.

Jerome Dangu, cofounder of Confiant, said Discover-Tech was distributing at least 10 million ads per day globally. He explained that data-sharing arrangements known as cookie matching allowed the firm to track individuals even beyond the immediate reach of its advertisements. "Very likely hundreds of millions of people would have been touched by Discover-Tech," Dangu said.

Targets in Sensitive Networks

Both research groups indicated that some ads were used to help plant Candiru spyware on users' devices. However, Confiant noted that ads linked to Candiru represented a tiny fraction of Discover-Tech’s overall volume. Citizen Lab reported that a powerful form of Candiru spyware delivered through these ads compromised 45 Windows devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera between 2024 and 2025. This finding was confirmed after Al Jazeera shared its network logs with Citizen Lab.

Dangu stated that malicious ads were shown to users in "hundreds of networks in sensitive categories," including the Pentagon, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the International Criminal Court. He added that the Palestinian territories were particularly saturated by the firm's ads. "You go to almost any site in Palestine — any site — you find a Discover-Tech ad. It gives them a very complete visibility on the digital activities of an entire country," he said.

Citizen Lab also provided evidence that the ads appeared in networks belonging to the United Nations, NATO, the European Commission, and more than a dozen national governments. Other affected networks included chip-related firms such as Nvidia, Sandisk, Broadcom, and Micron, as well as several unidentified media organizations in Mexico, Israel, and Europe.

Industry Response

Discover-Tech, founded in 2020, did not return messages left via its contact form, and attempts to reach its chief executive, Dekel Boni, were unsuccessful. Reuters also reported that attempts to reach Candiru’s owners were unsuccessful. The U.S. Commerce Department blacklisted Candiru in 2021 for allegedly supplying spyware used to target government officials, journalists, activists, and academics.

Following the reports, several major entities took action against Discover-Tech. Google stated in a statement that it had collaborated with the investigation and removed Discover-Tech from its ad platforms "for systematically violating our policies." IAB Europe said in an email that Discover-Tech had been suspended from its list of globally approved vendors last week after an audit identified policy violations. Comcast’s ad tech subsidiary, Beeswax, removed Discover-Tech from its platform "following recent activity," according to a Comcast statement. Yandex did not return messages seeking comment.

Why it matters

The reports highlight how the online advertising business, often criticized for privacy concerns, can serve as a channel for espionage. Wolfie Christl, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab, described the current state of online advertising as "a systemic security threat" for states, the private sector, and civil society. This development aligns with growing national security concerns regarding ad tech; earlier this year, the Pentagon reported that U.S. forces in war zones had been targeted using location data harvested by ad tech firms and data brokers, leading some military branches to disable ad tracking on devices.

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Sources

• bnnbloomberg.ca: Online ads allegedly used by Discover-Tech to aid hackers
• live.euronext.com: Israeli firm used online ads to run vast spy operation, researchers say | live

This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.