WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday added two European-based surveillance firms to its economic trade blacklist as part of the Biden administration’s ongoing efforts to counter the misuse of commercial spyware.
The department added Cytrox, a Europe-based surveillance company and Intellexa, another cyber-surveillance firm and two related entities.
Reuters reported last year a Greek prosecutor opened investigation into an allegation by a journalist that his smartphone had been infected by surveillance software in an operation by the country’s intelligence service. The journalist told Reuters he believed his phone had been infected by Predator spyware developed by Cytrox and said the Predator spyware is sold in Greece by Intellexa.
(Reporting by Jarrett Renshaw, David Shepardson and Karen Freifeld; Editing by Doina Chiacu)
