A few months ago we saw the CEO of Telegram make several accusations against Meta and WhatsApp involving security items. Now an account of The New York Times says that an employee of Mark Zuckerberg’s company was monitored for more than a year by a spyware called “Predator” and the most worrying was his area: security policy executive.
Artemis Seaford is the Meta employee who was tracked for over a year by the spyware Predator created by Cytroxa secretive cyber company that specializes in commercial spyware and surveillance tools and says it is headquartered in North Macedonia.
The case drew attention because the woman was the first American person to be targeted by the Predator. Seaford has US and Greek citizenship and suspected that she was being monitored when she saw her name on a spyware hit list on a Greek website in November 2022, which was confirmed after her cell phone was analyzed by citizen lab from the University of Toronto.
Evidence suggests that the attack with the Predator it was based on private information likely obtained through state intelligence wiretaps.
2/ I made a Covid vaccine appointment and immediately got sms confirmation from the state, followed by some helpful nudges to show up by the same official service. Day before the jab, I get a link to confirm my appointment, and boom…I am now infected.
— Artemis Seaford (@ArtemisSeaford) March 20, 2023
Seaford reports that her cell phone was infected through a link received in an SMS message in September 2021. The executive details that she was not the only victim of the Predatorwhich also took aim at politicians, journalists and businessmen in the political scandal called “Greece’s Watergate“.
the scandal of Greece’s Watergate runs to this day in courts, where the government is accused of spying on hundreds of people with the Predator to gain commercial and political advantages over other countries.
Giannis Oikonomou, spokesman for the Greek government denies all allegations saying:
Greek authorities and security services never purchased or used the surveillance software Predator. To suggest otherwise is wrong… The alleged use of this software by non-governmental parties is under ongoing judicial investigation.
Finally, the senior researcher at the citizen labJohn Scott-Railton, said that the use of this spyware is “diabolical” and that this is further evidence of how the use of Predator it’s out of control.
Meta has not commented on the case so far.
