Cytrox Holdings Zrt (Hungary) Cytrox AD (North Macedonia) Balinese Ltd. (Israel) Peterbald Ltd. (Israel)
Cytrox is a company established in 2017 that makes
malware used for
cyberattacks and covert surveillance. Its Predator spyware was used to target Egyptian politician
Ayman Nour in 2021 and to
spy on 92 phones belonging to businessmen, journalists, politicians, government ministers and their associates in Greece. In 2023, the
U.S. Department of Commerce added the Cytrox companies Cytrox AD in North Macedonia, and Cytrox Holdings Crt in Hungary to its
Entity List and on March 5, 2024, the
U.S. Department of Treasury imposed sanctions upon Cytrox AD of
North Macedonia and the Intellexa Consortium, which is the parent firm of Cytrox AD, "for trafficking in cyber exploits used to gain access to information systems, threatening the privacy and security of individuals and organizations worldwide."[1][2][3]
History
Cytrox was established in 2017, reportedly as a startup in
North Macedonia and received initial funding from Israel Aerospace Industries.[4] Its
Crunchbase article describes it as providing an "operational cyber solution" to governments, including gathering information from devices and cloud services.[5] Cytrox's CEO is
Ivo Malinkovski.[5][6] A review of corporate registry documents by the
University of Toronto's
Citizen Lab indicated that Cytrox has a presence in Israel and Hungary.[5]
In 2019, Forbes reported that Cytrox was rescued by
Tal Dilian, a former commander of the
Israel Defense Forces (IDF), who acquired the company for under $5 million.[7] Dilian served in the IDF for 25 years prior to his departure, following accusations that he had unlawfully enriched himself.[8] Dilian demonstrated the company's surveillance kit to Forbes by hacking into a
Huawei device and obtaining its
WhatsApp messages without clicks from the victim.[7][8]
The
Citizen Lab said in 2021 that Cytrox was part of an alliance known as Intellexa, which it called "a marketing label for a range of mercenary surveillance vendors that emerged in 2019."[5][9] Dilian founded the Intellexa Group in 2018; the Intellexa Alliance combines the Intellexa Group and Nexa, a group of surveillance companies that operates mainly in France.[10]
In December 2021,
Meta Platforms announced that Cytrox and six other surveillance-for-hire groups had been banned from using its platforms to target other users, in response to the Citizen Lab's findings about Cytrox's Predator
spyware being used to target two Egyptian dissidents in June. Meta also announced it had removed over 1,500
Facebook and
Instagram accounts associated with the seven companies, which it said were used to conduct
social engineering, reconnaissance and sending malicious links to victims in over 100 countries.[11][6]
In July 2023, the
U.S. Department of Commerce added the Cytrox companies Cytrox AD in North Macedonia, and Cytrox Holdings Crt in Hungary to its
Entity List, after determining that they posed a threat to the U.S.'s national security and foreign policy interests.[12][13][14][15]
Predator
Predator is spyware developed by Cytrox that targets the
Android and
iOS operating systems.[9] In May 2022, researchers at
Google's Threat Analysis Group (TAG) reported that Predator bundled five
zero-day exploits in one package and sold it to several government-backed actors, who used it in three separate campaigns. According to the researchers, Predator worked closely with a component named Alien, which "lives inside multiple privileged processes and receives commands from Predator."[16][9]
An analysis of the spyware conducted by
Cisco Talos in May 2023 revealed that the spyware's Alien component actively implements the low-level functionality required by Predator to surveil its targets, instead of merely acting as a loader for Predator as was previously understood. In Talos's sample, Alien exploited five vulnerabilities, four of which affected
Google Chrome and the last of which affected
Linux and Android, to infect the targeted devices.[17][9] After infecting a device, Predator has full access to its microphone, camera and user data such as contacts and text messages.[18][19] Additionally, Predator has access to a device's location services and messaging apps such as WhatsApp,
Telegram and
Signal. It also allows hackers to intercept and falsify messages.[19]
An October 2023 investigation conducted by news organisations led by the
European Investigative Collaborations network, known as the Predator Files, found that Predator has been sold to at least 25 countries, including Austria, Germany, Switzerland, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jordan, Kenya, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam.[18]
High-profile targets
Egypt
In December 2021, the Citizen Lab reported that Predator was used to hack the devices of two individuals, Egyptian opposition politician
Ayman Nour and an unnamed exiled journalist, in June.[5][6][9] As a result, Apple was forced to release a
software update for iOS to close the zero-day exploits used to perform the attack.[20]
In September 2023, researchers at the Citizen Lab and the TAG reported that Egyptian opposition politician
Ahmed Tantawi was targeted using Predator after announcing his presidential bid. The Citizen Lab said the effort likely failed due to Tantawi having his phone in "lockdown mode", which is recommended by
Apple for
iPhone users at high risk.[21][22][23] It also said it had "
high confidence" that the attack was conducted by the Egyptian government.[22] Apple subsequently issued security updates to patch the vulnerabilities exploited by Predator.[22][23]
Greece
During the
2022 Greek wiretapping scandal, it was revealed that Predator was being used to surveil several politicians (including opposition politician
Nikos Androulakis) and journalists, with the Greek government reportedly being implicated in buying and utilising Predator.[24][25] The Greek government admitted to spying on journalist Thanasis Koukakis, but denied using Predator or maintaining any association with Intellexa.[26] In October 2022, Koukakis sued Intellexa and its executive for
breach of privacy.[27][26]
In March 2023, The New York Times reported that Artemis Seaford, a dual U.S.-Greek national and former security policy manager at Meta, had her phone infected with Predator while in Greece.[28][29]
In July 2023, the investigation team of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority announced that it had found 220 text messages containing a link polluted with Predator, that had been sent to 92 telephone numbers in order to turn them into spying devices. The news website Inside Story published the content of many of them,[30][31] which had been sent mostly in 2021. Their recipients included many politicians, ministers and their associates, including associates of the Prime Minister (e.g.
Dimitris Avramopoulos,
Giorgos Patoulis,
Giorgos Gerapetritis,
Kostis Hatzidakis,
Thanos Plevris,
Michalis Chrysochoidis,
Adonis Georgiadis,
Nikos Dendias,
Christos Spirtzis), businessmen (e.g.
Theodoros Karipidis [
el]), journalists, EYP cadres, at least one bishop and the editor of the newspaper Kathimerini, Alexis Papachelas. These names had been included in a list of persons alleged to have been spied upon by EYP and Predator, which had been published in November 2022 by the Documento newspaper.[31]
United States
In October 2023, various American lawmakers were targeted by
Vietnam using Predator, including Representative
Michael McCaul (R-TX) and Senators
John Hoeven (R-ND),
Chris Murphy (D-CT) and
Gary Peters (D-MI).[32] Experts on Asia at various think tanks and several journalists, including
CNN's lead national security reporter
Jim Sciutto, were also targeted.[33]
the Hungary-based Cytrox Holdings Zartkoruen Mukodo Reszvenytarsasag (Cytrox Holdings ZRT), which the Treasury described as having originally developed Predator before the consortium moved its software production to Cytrox AD of North Macedonia;
^Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou was born in
Warsaw to a Polish mother and Lebanese father, attended law school in England, joined Trident Trust in December 2008, is closely associated with DJC Accountants of Cyprus and allegedly established numerous entities in support of Tal Dilian's interests using
Cyprus as a hub. Trident Trust allegedly supports members of the inner circle of
Vladimir Putin. Sara Hamou is the ex-wife of Tal Dilian and his business partner and is an attorney based in Cyprus that allegedly has implemented numerous surveillance projects in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Europe.[34][36][37]