WASHINGTON :The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday added two European-based surveillance firms to its economic trade blacklist as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to counter the misuse of commercial spyware.
The department added Cytrox, a Hungary-based surveillance company and Greek firm Intellexa, another cyber-surveillance firm and two related entities in Ireland and Macedonia.
Attempts to reach representatives from Cytrox and Intellexa were not immediately successful.
Reuters reported last year a Greek prosecutor opened an investigation into an allegation by a journalist that his smartphone had been infected by surveillance software in an operation by the country’s intelligence service. The journalist told Reuters he believed his phone had been infected by Predator spyware developed by Cytrox and said the Predator spyware is sold in Greece by Intellexa.
The Commerce Department said the companies were being added “for trafficking in cyber exploits used to gain access to information systems, thereby threatening the privacy and security of individuals and organizations worldwide.”
Reuters reported in August 2022 the head of Greek intelligence told a parliamentary committee his agency had spied on a journalist, two sources said, in a disclosure that coincides with growing pressure on the government to shed light on the use of surveillance malware.
The journalist’s allegation came as the European Union (EU) was beginning to follow the United States in taking a harder look at spyware merchants and the use of powerful surveillance software.
Reuters reported in 2020 that Intellexa was working with intelligence agencies in Southeast Asia and Europe.
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