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Sanctioning Proliferators of Commercial Spyware
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SANCTIONING PROLIFERATORS OF COMMERCIAL SPYWARE

March 13, 2024

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(FILE) The Treasury Department is seen near sunset in Washington, Jan. 18, 2023.
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"Today's actions represent a tangible step forward in discouraging the misuse of
commercial surveillance tools, which increasingly present a security risk to the
United States and our citizens," said Treasury Under Secretary Nelson.

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SANCTIONING PROLIFERATORS OF COMMERCIAL SPYWARE

by Editorials on Voice of America
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The United States is designating two individuals and five entities associated
with the Intellexa Consortium for their role in developing, operating, and
distributing commercial spyware technology that had been misused to target
Americans, including U.S. Government officials, journalists, and policy experts.

Based in Greece, the Intellexa Consortium is a collective of international,
decentralized companies that offer commercial spyware and surveillance tools to
enable targeted and mass surveillance campaigns. Packaged under the brand-name
“Predator” spyware, it is a suite of tools that can infiltrate a range of
electronic devices. It can be used to harvest data, geolocation tracking, and
enable access to a variety of applications and personal information on the
infected devices.

Intellexa Consortium’s customer base is global. Already, the Predator spyware
suite has been deployed by numerous governments to facilitate repression and
enable human rights abuses, including to intimidate political opponents and curb
dissent, limit freedom of expression, and monitor and target activists and
journalists. Even individuals within democratic governments have misused this
commercial spyware to target their citizens without proper legal authorization,
safeguards, and oversight.

Pursuant to Executive Order 13694, as amended by Executive Order 13757, the U.S.
Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC,
designated Tal Jonathan Dilian and Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou for being the
key enablers of Intellexa Consortium.

Dilian, a former Israeli military officer, is Intellexa’s founder and the
architect behind the Predator spyware tools. He fully or partially controls the
companies associated with the Consortium.

Hamou is a corporate off-shoring specialist who has provided managerial services
to the Intellexa Consortium.

In addition to the Intellexa Consortium, four companies within the Consortium
were also sanctioned. They are Ireland-based Intellexa Limited; North
Macedonia-based Cytrox AD; Hungary-based Cytrox Holdings ZRT; and Ireland-based
Thalestris Limited.

“Today’s actions represent a tangible step forward in discouraging the misuse of
commercial surveillance tools, which increasingly present a security risk to the
United States and our citizens,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for
Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson.

“The United States remains focused on establishing clear guardrails for the
responsible development and use of these technologies while also ensuring the
protection of human rights and civil liberties of individuals around the world.”


REFLECTING THE VIEWS OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT AS BROADCAST ON THE VOICE OF AMERICA


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