According to local reports, an Israeli commercial spyware maker implicated in a new zero-day iPhone exploit was recently shut down for good.
Anonymous sources told Israel daily Calcarist Yesterday, Tel Aviv-based QuaDream announced it would lay off all employees and scale back operations over the next few days.
For more information on commercial spyware makers, see the following articles: Tech Industry Bids to Tackle Cyber-Mercenary Epidemic.
The secretive company itself could not be reached for comment, but these sources say the company has been in financial trouble for some time, and last week’s blockbuster reveal was the final straw.
According to its report from Citizen Lab, QuaDream claims to have developed a zero-click, zero-day exploit (referred to by researchers as “EndofDays”).
QuaDream spyware, which Microsoft calls “KingsPawn”, was then deployed via an exploit. Researchers have found at least five victims of civil society who appear to have been targeted by QuaDream’s clients, usually authoritarian states.
However, the scale of the operation could have been much larger. Citizen Labs has identified over 600 servers linked to QuaDream spyware in late 2021 and early 2023, located in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ghana, Israel, Mexico, Romania, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates ( UAE), and Uzbekistan with suspected operators.
according to CalcaristQuaDream has not been fully operational for some time as the board is currently trying to sell the company’s intellectual property.
Its demise will be welcomed by civil society groups, but there are many similar commercial spyware makers poised to fill the gap left by the company.
That’s one reason why the White House recently issued a new executive order. It seeks to ban the government from using spyware previously designed for “anti-democratic” use or that poses counterintelligence or security risks to Washington.
The order is expected to discourage commercial spyware developers who hope to sell spyware to the US government.
