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Reply to @wchr@mastodon.social
Wolfie Christl@wchr@mastodon.social (2026-10-16 00:21:17)
We found that Discover-Tech delivered ads via Google, Yandex and other ad vendors including Beeswax (Comcast), Vungle (Liftoff), Eskimi and Sunteng.

Discover-Tech was listed as a 'certified' and 'approved' ad vendor by Google and the advertising industry association IAB Europe from 2020 until Oct 2026.

The ad vendor registries maintained by Google and IAB Europe helped make Discover-Tech appear to be a legitimate vendor and facilitated its participation in the advertising ecosystem at scale.
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Wolfie Christl@wchr@mastodon.social (2026-10-16 00:28:19)
And this is how Discover-Tech facilitated a zero-click Candiru spyware infection:

1. Target user with a Discover-Tech ad with JavaScript code attached
2. Select user for validation? Connect to Candiru validator server
3. Select user for infection? Connect to Candiru infection server
4. Device infected? Connect to Candiru C&C server

Discover-Tech also received a lot of device and identity data using its impression and click tracking systems, whether a user was selected for infection or not.
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Wolfie Christl@wchr@mastodon.social (2026-10-16 00:34:42)
In addition to actual infections, we found 4 billion ad bidding records from Discover-Tech's MyDSP system.

From March to June 2026, hundreds of millions of their ads were shown to users of almost 200k different websites and apps.

Millions of people were at least subject to profiling, if not worse.

This includes users within IP networks of NATO, UN, EU institutions and a wide range of organizations in many countries including in defense, government, critical infrastructure, industry and media.
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