The Treasury Department has prohibited Intellexa from conducting business in the U.S.
On Tuesday, the Treasury Department prohibited a notorious developer of software that can hack smartphones and convert them into surveillance devices from operating in the U.S.
These sanctions represent the most assertive measure the U.S. government has taken against a spyware company.
The company, Intellexa, creates a software called Predator, which can take control of a person’s phone and transform it into a surveillance tool. Predator, along with other major spyware programs, can covertly activate the user’s microphone and camera, download files without their knowledge, and track their location.
Under the sanctions, Americans and those conducting business with the U.S. are prohibited from transacting with Intellexa, its founder and architect Tal Dilian, employee Sara Hamou, and four companies associated with Intellexa.
During a press call previewing the sanctions, a White House official, who wished to remain anonymous, stated that the decision to sanction Intellexa “goes beyond actions we’ve taken previously.”
“This is the first instance where the U.S. government has used any sanctions authority against commercial spyware vendors for enabling misuse of their tools,” he said.
An Amnesty International investigation revealed that Predator has been used to target journalists, human rights activists, and some high-level political figures, including European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and Taiwan’s outgoing president, Tsai Ing-Wen. The report also found that Predator was deployed against at least two sitting members of Congress, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D.
Predator was also at the center of a 2022 scandal in Greece, where dozens of politicians and journalists were reportedly targeted with the spyware.
NBC News was unable to reach Intellexa for comment. Its website has been offline since sometime in 2023.
A Treasury Department press release on the sanctions noted that “multiple governments worldwide have used this technology to facilitate repression and commit human rights abuses, including intimidating political opponents, suppressing dissent, restricting freedom of expression, and monitoring and targeting activists and journalists.”
These sanctions follow President Joe Biden’s 2023 executive order on regulating commercial spyware.
Under this order, the Commerce Department had already added another spyware developer, the Israeli company NSO Group, to the U.S. entity list, imposing additional regulations. However, sanctioning Intellexa represents a more significant escalation, according to John Scott-Railton, a senior spyware researcher at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab.
“The U.S. applying Treasury sanctions is going to send a shockwave through the spyware industry,” he said. “This brings serious, personal consequences.”
“This is the kind of action that makes people reconsider their careers and potentially leave their countries,” he added.