Google calls out spyware companies as hacking tools proliferate

Internet giant Google on Tuesday 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 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 past decade. The industry has faced increasing scrutiny since the Israeli firm NSO’s Pegasus spyware was found on the phones of various people globally, including human rights defenders.

In a report on Tuesday, Google researchers said that while NSO is better known, there are dozens of smaller companies helping the proliferation of spy technology for malicious uses.

The findings by Alphabet’s Google are significant because the company has some of the best visibility into hacking campaigns globally, given the vast breadth of its online offerings.

“Demand 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,” researchers from Google’s TAG threat-hunting team said in the report.

“The private sector is now responsible for a significant portion of the most sophisticated tools we detect.”

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.

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, lesserknown Italian firm Negg Group and Spain’s Variston.