The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has announced a new round of sanctions against members of the Intellexa Consortium for distributing “Predator” branded commercial spyware technology to target American citizens.
The March 5 announcement says that the Greece-based commercial technology company has sold the spyware technology to foreign actors who have been targeting American government officials, journalists, and policy experts.
“These tools are packaged as a suite of tools under the brand-name ‘Predator’ spyware, which can infiltrate a range of electronic devices through zero-click attacks that require no user interaction for the spyware to infect the device,” the Treasury Department said.
“Today’s actions represent a tangible step forward in discouraging the misuse of commercial surveillance tools, which increasingly present a security risk to the United States and our citizens,” said Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson.
“The United States remains focused on establishing clear guardrails for the responsible development and use of these technologies while also ensuring the protection of human rights and civil liberties of individuals around the world,” added Nelson.
Those sanctioned include Tal Jonathan Dilian, founder of Intellexa Consortium and the architect behind its spyware tools, and Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou, a corporate “off-shoring specialist who has provided managerial services to the Intellexa Consortium,” the Treasury Department said.
“As a result of today’s action, all property and interests in property of the designated persons described above that are in the United States or in the possession or control of U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to OFAC,” the agency said. “In addition, any entities that are owned, directly or indirectly, individually or in the aggregate, 50 percent or more by one or more blocked persons are also blocked,” it said.
Last year, the Commerce Department blacklisted affiliates of Intellexa by adding them to the agency’s “Entity List” for allegedly trafficking in cyber exploits that can enable campaigns of repression and other human rights abuses.
