US sanctions 2 individuals, 5 entities linked to spyware consortium

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday designated two individuals and five entities associated with a commercial spyware consortium, accusing them of playing a role in developing, operating and distributing technology used to target U.S. officials, journalists and policy experts.

The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the sanctions against those linked to the Intellexa Commercial Spyware Consortium ahead of the third Summit for Democracy that Korea plans to host from March 18-20.

“The proliferation of commercial spyware poses distinct and growing security risks to the United States and has been misused by foreign actors to enable human rights abuses and the targeting of dissidents around the world for repression and reprisal,” the department said in a press release.

Among those on the sanctions list was Intellexa S.A., which is a Greece-based software development company within the

Intellexa Consortium and has exported its surveillance tools to authoritarian regimes, according to the department.

They also included Intellexa Limited, which is an Ireland-based company within the Intellexa Consortium and acts as a technology reseller and holds assets on behalf of the consortium, it said.

“In advance of the third Summit for Democracy, hosted by the Republic of Korea in Seoul on March 18, 2024, this action supports the Biden-Harris Administration’s government-wide effort to counter the risks posed by commercial spyware and to establish robust protections against the misuse of such tools,” the department said.

The democracy summit is a U.S.-led multinational gathering to strengthen solidarity among democracies.

The United States hosted the first session of the summit in 2021. The second one was hosted jointly by the U.S., Korea, Costa Rica, the Netherlands and Zambia.