US sanctions spyware company and executives who targeted American journalists, government officials

By AAMER MADHANI
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department says it has sanctioned two people and a Greece-based commercial spyware company headed by a former Israeli military officer that developed and distributed technology used to target U.S. government officials, journalists and policy experts. The sanctions announced Tuesday target Intellexa Consortium, which the U.S. says has sold and distributed commercial spyware and surveillance tools for targeted and mass surveillance campaigns. Other entities associated with Intellexa are sanctioned for their parts in developing and distributing a package of tools known as Predator. Predator allows a user to infiltrate electronic devices through zero-click attacks that require no user interaction for the spyware to infect the device.