Facebook exposes mercenary spy firms that targeted 50,000 people

 Facebook owner Meta Platforms Inc (FB.O) is calling out half a dozen private surveillance companies for hacking or other abuses, accusing them in a report published Thursday of collectively targeting about 50,000 people across its platforms.

The company's fight with the spy firms comes amid a wider move by American tech companies, U.S. lawmakers and President Joe Biden's administration against purveyors of digital espionage services, notably the Israeli spyware company NSO Group, which was blacklisted earlier this month following weeks of revelations about how its technology was being deployed against civil society. Meta is already suing NSO in a U.S. court. Nathaniel Gleicher, Meta's head of security policy, told Reuters that Thursday's crackdown was meant to signal that "the surveillance-for-hire industry is much broader than one company."Meta's report said it was suspending roughly 1,500, mostly fake accounts run by seven organizations across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Meta said the entities targeted people in more than 100 countries. Meta did not provide a detailed explanation of how it identified the surveillance firms, but it operates some of the world's biggest social and communications networks and regularly touts its ability to find and remove malicious actors from its platforms.

Among them is Israel's Black Cube, which became notorious for deploying its spies on behalf of Hollywood rapist Harvey Weinstein. Meta said the intelligence firm was deploying phantom personas to chat its targets up online and gather their emails, "likely for later phishing attacks."Report ad

In a statement, Black Cube said it "does not undertake any phishing or hacking" and said the firm routinely ensured "all our agents' activities are fully compliant with local laws."

Others called out by Meta include BellTroX, an Indian cyber mercenary firm exposed by Reuters and the internet watchdog Citizen Lab last year, an Israeli company called Bluehawk CI, and a European firm named Cytrox - all of whom Meta accused of hacking. Cognyte (CGNT.O), which was spun off from security giant Verint Systems Inc (VRNT.O) in February, and Israeli firms Cobwebs Technologies were accused not of hacking but of using fake profiles to trick people into revealing private data.

Cognyte, Verint and Bluehawk did not immediately return messages seeking comment. In an email, Cobwebs spokesperson Meital Levi Tal said the company drew on open sources and that its products "are not intrusive by any means." Messages left with Ivo Malinovski – who until recently identified himself as Cytrox's chief executive on LinkedIn – received no immediate response. BellTroX founder Sumit Gupta has not returned Reuters reporters' messages since his firm was exposed last year. He had previously denied wrongdoing.

Gleicher refused to identify any of the targets by name but Citizen Lab, in a report published at the same time as Meta's, said that one of Cytrox's victims was Egyptian opposition figure Ayman Nour. Nour blamed the Egyptian government for the spying, telling Reuters in an interviewfrom Istanbul that he had long suspected he was under surveillance by officials there.

"For the first time I have evidence," he said. Egyptian authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gleicher said other targets of the spy firms included celebrities, politicians, journalists, lawyers, executives and regular citizens. Friends and family of the targets were also swept up in the espionage campaigns, he said. Meta cybersecurity official David Agranovich said he hoped Thursday's announcement would "kickstart the disruption of the surveillance-for-hire market." There were some signs that other social media firms were taking similar action, with Twitter announcing the removal of 300 accounts a few hours after Meta's announcement.

Whether the takedowns deal the companies involved more than a temporary setback remains to be seen. Two of the companies, Black Cube and BellTroX, have bounced back after being embroiled in previous spy scandals. Gleicher said that targets of the spy firms would receive automated warnings, but he said Facebook would stop short of identifying the specific firms involved or their clients. That's despite the fact that Facebook said it had identified several customers of Cobwebs, Cognyte, Cytrox, and Black Cube - the latter of which includes law firms.

Marta Pardavi, one of several Hungarian human rights defenders who say they were targeted by Black Cube in 2017 and 2018, said she was gratified by the news of Facebook's report but wanted more information. "They name law firms," she said. "But law firms have clients. Who are the clients for these law firms?"

 

Early Image of Jesus Christ Discovered at Oxyrhynchus, Egypt

Spanish and French archaeologists excavating at the ancient Egyptian city of Oxyrhynchushave discovered what could be one of the earliest known images of Jesus Christ.

At the archaeological site, which is located about 160 km south-southwest of Cairo, the team led by Prof Josep Padro from the University of Barcelona unearthed an underground stone structure dating from between the 6th to 7th centuries CE.

The structure measures 8 m long and 3.75 m deep and holds what could be one of the earliest paintings of Jesus Christ. “An underground room dating from the 6th century CE holds an image of a young man with curly hair, dressed in a short tunic and with his hand raised as if giving a blessing,” Prof Padro explained.

He and his colleagues believe the image was painted by Coptic Christians.

Another stunning find at Oxyrhynchus is the tomb of a scribe.

“The archaeological site of Oxyrhynchus is known for the thousands of papyri found there, but any scribe was found to date,” Prof Padro said.

The archaeologists also found working tools of the scribe including an ink pot, which is still full of ink, and two pens.

There were no inscriptions referring to the identity of the scribe, but the remains show that he was 17 years old and lived during the Coptic Roman period.

YOUNG THUG ADMITS HE'S 'NEVER WRITTEN A LYRIC' - EVER

Young Thug is undoubtedly one of the trendsetters in Hip Hop. While some artists might opt to pick up a pen when it comes to their rhymes, Thugger explained to i-D magazine that he’s never written a lyric on paper in his life. “I’ve never written a lyric. Ever,” he said. “I really haven’t. I kind of just freestyle. I just go with it as it comes. I never really wrote anything down. I’m not patient enough to sit and write. It just takes a lot of my day.” The quote was prompted by a question asking about his favorite lyric he ever wrote. However, Thugger did reveal that he’d consider putting pen to paper when it comes to songwriting if he ends up in jail again.

Although, if he had to choose just one of his lyrics, the 30-year-old went with “Trying to kill these bastards like family don’t matter” off his 2017 Beautiful Thugger Girls song “Family Don’t Matter.”

 “Maybe because of how important family is to me,” Young Thug continued. “You know? That’s probably why it’s like fuck, like, you actually said it.”

“Only time I’ve had the time to write lyrics down is when I’ve been incarcerated,” he said. “Even if I just have to go to jail for a day or something. I don’t like writing and that’s the only way I can write; if I just got time on my hands and there’s nothing in the world I could do.”