Israeli company weaponised online advertising to track millions of devices

Key points

• Research group The Citizen Lab says an Israel-based company used digital advertising to install spyware on millions of devices. Viewing an infected advertisement was enough to expose a device to the attack.
• Targets reportedly included Australian government agencies, critical infrastructure and media organisations, among them the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. A spokesperson for that organisation said it had identified no impact on its systems.
• Google removed the company, Discover-Tech, from its platform after being told of the findings.