By Luis Rijo
Publication Date: 2026-10-18 13:33:00
Google and IAB Europe removed Israeli ad company Discover-Tech from their vendor registries in early October 2026, after a Citizen Lab investigation published on October 15 found that ads bought by the company were used to deliver Candiru’s mercenary spyware to at least 45 devices at Al Jazeera, without a single click.
In Short
Researchers at the University of Toronto found that a company presenting itself as an ordinary ad buyer used online ads to break into phones and computers, including devices at the news network Al Jazeera, just by showing an ad on screen. The company had been listed as an approved vendor by Google and the industry group IAB Europe for almost six years, so its ads ran in tens of thousands of apps and websites that many people use. Google, IAB Europe and several ad platforms have now cut the company off, and the researchers want regulators to investigate and the ad industry to check its partners far more carefully.
A report with a name for a new technique
The…
