Cybersecurity Policy Report, Global Spyware Group Faces New U.S. Sanctions, (Sep 17, 2024)
Organizations Mentioned:Office of Foreign Assets Control
Five individuals and a corporate entity affiliated with a global spyware distribution network will face economic sanctions, the Treasury Department has announced.
The Intellexa Consortium, which is accused of selling spyware to autocratic governments to monitor activists and journalists, has been in the crosshairs of the Biden administration since at least 2023 as part of the administration’s efforts to prevent the use of spyware that threatens privacy and human rights (CPR, March 27, 2023).
The newly sanctioned individuals include five executives of companies associated with the consortium and Aliada Group, Inc., a corporate entity based in the British Virgin Islands, according to Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
“The Intellexa Consortium is a complex international web of decentralized companies that built and commercialized a comprehensive suite of highly invasive spyware products, primarily marketed under the brand-name ‘Predator,’” OFAC explained yesterday in a news release.
“As a part of the growing commercial spyware industry, the Intellexa Consortium maintains operations around the world, and its clients include state-sponsored actors and governments. Past targets of the Intellexa Consortium’s spyware products include government officials, journalists, policy experts, and opposition politicians,” OFAC said.
“The United States will not tolerate the reckless propagation of disruptive technologies that threatens our national security and undermines the privacy and civil liberties of our citizens,” said Bradley Smith, Treasury’s acting undersecretary–terrorism and financial intelligence.
“We will continue to hold accountable those that seek to enable the proliferation of exploitative technologies, while also encouraging the responsible development of technologies that align with international standards,” Mr. Smith added.
The sanctions will freeze any U.S. assets of the individuals and Aliada Group and bar U.S. persons or entities from doing business with them or providing financial support without a license from OFAC.
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