The United States Department of the Treasury is stepping up its crackdown on developers and providers of commercial spyware. Now the US government has imposed sanctions not only on such organizations, but also, for the first time, on the founders and leading figures of these spyware companies. They are Tal Dilian, the founder of Intellexa, and the lesser-known Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou, who handles financial matters at Intellexa.
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The European Intellexa consortium is known for the Predator spyware, which, according to the USA, is used worldwide as a means of digital repression. That is why the USA imposed sanctions against the Predator developer from Europe in the summer of 2023. The US Department of Commerce said that the espionage tools from Intellexa from Greece and Ireland and Cytrox from Hungary and North Macedonia pose a threat to US national security.
Sanctions not only against organizations
Now the US Treasury Department is following up with even more extensive sanctions against the Intellexa consortium, with people also being affected by the sanctions for the first time. US companies are no longer allowed to do business with the various Intellexas companies, but also no longer with Dilian or Hamou. Hamou holds a leading role at Intellexa, is an offshoring expert and is responsible for management services. She rented office space in Greece for Intellexa and held management roles at Intellexa companies in Greece and Ireland as well as at the Irish subsidiary Thalestris.
“Today's actions represent a concrete step forward to stop the abuse of commercial surveillance tools that increasingly pose a security risk to the United States and our citizens,” wrote Brian E. Nelson, Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, in his office's statement . “The U.S. remains focused on establishing clear guidelines for the responsible development and use of these technologies while ensuring the protection of the human rights and civil liberties of individuals around the world.”
US espionage from Europe
The USA accuses the Intellexa consortium as well as Dilian and Hamou of playing a key role in the development and distribution of the Predator spyware. This would be used to spy on Americans. This would include government officials, journalists and politicians. However, the US Treasury Department did not provide any evidence of the use of the spyware against US officials.
In addition to Dilian and Hamou, the USA is sanctioning these companies in the Intellexa consortium: Intellexa SA in Greece, which is said to have sold the self-developed spyware to authoritarian regimes, Intellexa Limited in Ireland, which is said to serve as the consortium's reseller, Cytrox Holdings ZRT in Hungary and Cytrox AD from North Macedonia, which is said to have developed and further developed the Predator spyware, and Thalestris Limited in Ireland, which is said to act as the consortium's financial holding company.
Impact of sanctions
The sanctions now imposed prohibit US companies and individuals from doing business with the companies mentioned as well as Dilian and Hamou. This includes financial transactions, but also material or technological support. This is intended to restrict the distribution of spying tools in the USA and make commercial surveillance no longer worthwhile.
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At the same time, the sanctions should be a warning for everyone working in the spyware industry, like Dilian and Hamou, writes Techcrunch. “The impact and magnitude of the sanctions will change the lives of these two individuals,” said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab who has studied government spyware for more than a decade. “Their life – as they know it – is over.”
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