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Israeli Spy Company Busted Using Malware Ads To Infect, Locate, And Spy On Starlink Users (www.techdirt.com)
submitted 3 days ago by to c/privacy@lemmy.ca
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Israeli spy outfit Discover-Tech spied on internet users through a sprawling network of dodgy online ads ​that it used to track, surveil, and geolocate internet users. In some instances simply having the firm’s “zero click” spyware ads displayed by devices resulted in infection. The company seemed particularly interested in using ads to surveil and geolocate…

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[–] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

They use tricks and exploits to escape their sandbox. Browsers have some legitimate uses for 3rd party JavaScript to interact with the page. Malicious ads will obfuscate their code to use APIs in an unintended way.

Sorry I don’t know more specifics, but this is why the FBI recommends you run an ad blocker.

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  • [–] 1 point 1 day ago (1 child)

    That makes sense. Thanks. So DNS-level ad blockers wouldn't help in this situation, right? We're talking about browser plugins to block malicious code?

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  • [–] 1 point 23 hours ago

    DNS blockers like Pi-hole would potentially offer better protection right if the network requests are intercepted at the local network level then even devices like a smart fridge that make ad requests could be protected without an ad blocker extension on every device.

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