Houthi missiles hit Aden palace as Saudi Arabia points to Iran School roof collapse in Peshawar kills dozens of pupils and a teacher Asian tech stocks plunge as AI debt and inflation fears spread Ukraine resumes refinery strikes after pause under US energy truce Starshield restored after Kyiv blames politics for outage US military prepares 'mother of all bombs' option for possible Iran strikes Seven sailors missing after drones hit two tankers off Romania Russia launches record drone swarm as US energy ceasefire collapses Kenya confirms second Ebola case as Congo health workers strike Container ship sinks near Hormuz as UN warns of fertiliser shortfall Kremlin says diesel exports restart as Germany rejects US asset plan US producer prices surge, feeding bets on Fed rate hike G20 ministers flag yield and currency worries as Iran war keeps energy costly Fighters attack army base in Borno, killing soldiers Albania's Rama rejects resignation as student protests turn violent IEA speeds up oil stock release beyond 400 million barrels Istanbul flood death toll rises to three, four missing Israel halts commercial goods into Gaza amid dispute over truck fees North Korea tests submarine-launched missiles as China bridge opens EU leaders clash over trillion-euro budget at Brussels summit Israeli ad firm used online ads to help install spyware, researchers say Eight US states sue OpenAI as FTC subpoenas OpenAI and Anthropic French debt worries spill into stocks, driving biggest underperformance since 2010 Smartphone shipments crash 22% in worst quarter ever EU-Gulf summit and Saudi events postponed amid Houthi attacks Pope Leo recovering after lung cancer surgery Indonesian fires deepen regional haze as pressure grows on Jakarta France and Germany agree car deal softening 2035 combustion ban Maduro pleads not guilty to US torture conspiracy charges Brazil abolishes six-day workweek as Bolsonaro gathers endorsements before run-off Hezbollah says it owned explosives seized by Lebanese army Hamburg court jails two men over Iran-backed plots against Beck and Schuster Hezbollah claims seized vehicle as Iran reportedly orders readiness Voter frustration and inflation weigh on Trump ahead of US midterms French student protests continue as police union plans lawsuit India approves Fairfax's $5.6bn takeover of IDBI Bank Trump administration seeks to strip Ilhan Omar of citizenship, reports say Russian investigators search Novaya Gazeta editor's home and question Sergei Sokolov Tens of thousands march in Colombia's first national strike against De la Espriella Researchers fear Z.ai's GLM-5.3 can fake AI safety tests Trump cancels livestream of Fort Hood shooter's execution Russia detains Swedish man over alleged sabotage plot Suspect in OpenAI bugging case allegedly booked one-way flight to Saudi Arabia Swedish parliament rejects Andersson as prime minister amid government deadlock Ethiopian forces expand control in Tigray as Eritrea denies troop movements Houthi missiles hit Aden palace as Saudi Arabia points to Iran School roof collapse in Peshawar kills dozens of pupils and a teacher Asian tech stocks plunge as AI debt and inflation fears spread Ukraine resumes refinery strikes after pause under US energy truce Starshield restored after Kyiv blames politics for outage US military prepares 'mother of all bombs' option for possible Iran strikes Seven sailors missing after drones hit two tankers off Romania Russia launches record drone swarm as US energy ceasefire collapses Kenya confirms second Ebola case as Congo health workers strike Container ship sinks near Hormuz as UN warns of fertiliser shortfall Kremlin says diesel exports restart as Germany rejects US asset plan US producer prices surge, feeding bets on Fed rate hike G20 ministers flag yield and currency worries as Iran war keeps energy costly Fighters attack army base in Borno, killing soldiers Albania's Rama rejects resignation as student protests turn violent IEA speeds up oil stock release beyond 400 million barrels Istanbul flood death toll rises to three, four missing Israel halts commercial goods into Gaza amid dispute over truck fees North Korea tests submarine-launched missiles as China bridge opens EU leaders clash over trillion-euro budget at Brussels summit Israeli ad firm used online ads to help install spyware, researchers say Eight US states sue OpenAI as FTC subpoenas OpenAI and Anthropic French debt worries spill into stocks, driving biggest underperformance since 2010 Smartphone shipments crash 22% in worst quarter ever EU-Gulf summit and Saudi events postponed amid Houthi attacks Pope Leo recovering after lung cancer surgery Indonesian fires deepen regional haze as pressure grows on Jakarta France and Germany agree car deal softening 2035 combustion ban Maduro pleads not guilty to US torture conspiracy charges Brazil abolishes six-day workweek as Bolsonaro gathers endorsements before run-off Hezbollah says it owned explosives seized by Lebanese army Hamburg court jails two men over Iran-backed plots against Beck and Schuster Hezbollah claims seized vehicle as Iran reportedly orders readiness Voter frustration and inflation weigh on Trump ahead of US midterms French student protests continue as police union plans lawsuit India approves Fairfax's $5.6bn takeover of IDBI Bank Trump administration seeks to strip Ilhan Omar of citizenship, reports say Russian investigators search Novaya Gazeta editor's home and question Sergei Sokolov Tens of thousands march in Colombia's first national strike against De la Espriella Researchers fear Z.ai's GLM-5.3 can fake AI safety tests Trump cancels livestream of Fort Hood shooter's execution Russia detains Swedish man over alleged sabotage plot Suspect in OpenAI bugging case allegedly booked one-way flight to Saudi Arabia Swedish parliament rejects Andersson as prime minister amid government deadlock Ethiopian forces expand control in Tigray as Eritrea denies troop movements

Symbolic image: Israeli ad firm used online ads to help install spyware, researchers say

Symbolic image

Israeli ad firm used online ads to help install spyware, researchers say

7 sources

Citizen Lab and Confiant reported on Thursday that Israeli ad agency Discover-Tech used online ads to track users and help plant Candiru spyware. Devices at Al Jazeera were among those infected.

In separate reports published on Thursday, 15 October, the two research groups said Discover-Tech's ads, often for ordinary products such as phones or earbuds, reached more than 120,000 websites and 75,000 apps, according to Citizen Lab. The ads only had to load for users to be identified and tracked. Citizen Lab describes the zero-click delivery as a new technique. Confiant co-founder Jerome Dangu said the firm served at least 10 million ads a day and that "very likely hundreds of millions of people" were touched, though Confiant said ads tied to Candiru were a tiny fraction of the volume. Discover-Tech did not respond to requests for comment.

Al Jazeera devices infected

Citizen Lab says Candiru spyware delivered through the ads compromised 45 Windows devices at Al Jazeera between 2024 and 2025, which it confirmed with network logs the broadcaster shared. Al Jazeera condemned the attacks on its staff as an assault on press freedom and demanded that those responsible be held accountable.

Sensitive networks and Palestine

Confiant says the ads appeared in networks of the Pentagon, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the International Criminal Court. Dangu said Gaza and the West Bank were particularly saturated with the firm's ads. The US Commerce Department blacklisted Candiru in 2021.