Israeli digital advertising agency Discover-Tech spied on internet users through a sprawling network of online ads that it used to track targets and help hack their devices, the research groups Citizen Lab and Confiant said, in a report by The Jerusalem Post.

Its services gave Candiru, an Israeli spyware company blacklisted by the US government, and other Israeli surveillance firms access to advertising platforms run by Google, Comcast, Russia’s Yandex and others. According to Citizen Lab, a powerful form of Candiru spyware delivered through Discover-Tech’s ads compromised 45 Windows devices at the Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera between 2024 and 2025, confirmed through network logs from the media group. Google said it had collaborated with Citizen Lab and Confiant on the investigation and kicked Discover-Tech off its ad platforms for “systematically violating our policies.”