In the latest move against makers of spyware, the U.S. has placed new sanctions on Tal Dilian, a former Israeli intelligence officer who founded Intellexa Consortium. The company’s Predator software suite has been used by authoritarian regimes to spy on U.S. government officials, journalists, and policy experts.
Predator spyware has been deployed to surveil Rep. Michael McCaul and Sen. John Hoeven, as well as played a role in the 2022 Greek election. Portions of Intellexa Consortium are located in Greece, Ireland, North Macedonia, Hungary, and elsewhere.
The Biden administration has been ramping up legal tools to target spyware makers, including blacklisting Israel’s NSO Group. However, the U.S. government reportedly paid NSO Group for a tool that can track mobile phone users globally.
This marks the first time the U.S. has leveraged sanctions against commercial spyware vendors for enabling misuse of their tools, according to a White House official.
