Discover‑Tech ran 10 million spyware‑enabled ads on 120,000 websites and 75,000 apps worldwide, allowing Israeli spyware firm Candiru to install malware on devices, Citizen Lab and Confiant said Thursday.
The ads, which looked like ordinary phone or earpod promotions, used cookie‑matching to stitch user profiles across domains, enabling Discover‑Tech to pinpoint individuals and pull phone numbers from their phones, researchers said.
Al Jazeera’s network of 45 Windows machines was hit between 2024 and 2025, with logs showing the spyware was delivered via Discover‑Tech ads, the broadcaster’s security team confirmed.
Google removed Discover‑Tech from its ad inventory after an internal audit, while IAB Europe cut it from its approved‑vendor list and Comcast’s Beeswax platform. Yandex has yet to respond.
The U.S. Commerce Department will now review Candiru’s ties to Discover‑Tech and may extend its blacklist, officials said.