r/videos • u/Prime-Paradox • 3h ago

Israeli spyware used in 'zero click' hack on Al Jazeera staff

https://youtu.be/oTNqhH4KzxY?si=m2BrnIijJM1CtjsK
387 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

33

u/Longey 2h ago

uh...what?

75

u/xcassets 2h ago

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/oct/15/israeli-firm-digital-ads-enabling-installation-of-zero-click-spyware-researchers-say

Story from this week. Tracking/spyware delivered via online advertisements.

68

u/APRengar 2h ago

Important to note that this spyware got transmitted even if you didn't click the ad. Just scrolling past it was enough.

There's lots of people who say "just don't be an idiot and click on banners saying hot milfs in your area or run sketchy exe or bat files." Which is still good advice, but the reason why this story was a big deal was because that advice wouldn't protect you in this case.

•

u/woah_whats_thatb 1h ago

it's shit like this that really affirms my belief that we are beyond fucked. trust is already at an all time low and now you get whatever the fuck is going on here. awareness literally does nothing and so you got nihilism making a comeback.

23

u/homiekisses 2h ago

Incredible that an article describing the dangers of online ads would request that you disable ad blocking. Also this article sucks it doesn’t tell you anything about what systems are vulnerable and what the vulnerability does

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u/nightmare_floofer 1h ago

Quotes from the video linked on this post:

"What they found was Trojan malware, software hiding inside their laptops that was recording their keystrokes, taking screenshots, and sending them to external servers."

"It can gather documents, browser data, passwords. It can take screenshots, record microphone and webcam input, as well as read your messages. It also burrows deep into your phone or laptop, and prevents itself from being found."

•

u/Au_Fraser 5m ago

Ok...how does it hook in from viewing an ad?

26

u/Jokers_friend 2h ago

There are now legitimate, security reasons for Adblocks.

22

u/tekprodfx16 2h ago

This is why they didn’t want ad blockers in the first place 

•

u/Nubeel 43m ago

No it’s because less ad views = less money. The main reason is capitalism. Spying on us is a happy side effect.

6

u/Genocode 2h ago

iirc the FBI always recommended using Ad Blockers for security.

•

u/Warrenio 15m ago

Always have been

•

u/the1nderer 3m ago

I think the question here is firstly, 'was it only used on Al Jazeera staff?'

As it looks like the answer is yes, then the second question is 'why did they target them?'... and i have a suspicion the reason is going to be huge global news, given that they are essentially the Global Islamic News Network, and that the Associated Press group recently withdrew their report accusing Israel of deliberately targeting reporters, when Hamas and the PLO accidentally published obituaries which admitted a lot of those dead reporters were actually their fighters.

I've a very strong suspicion that Mossad knows exactly what it's looking for, and who it needed to target to get it, and that most likely its related to knowingly coordinating with those groups and giving them journalist ID, which will be a huge hit to their news agency's credibility... for anyone that's actually listening.

As for the tech.. shitty, but so was Stuxnet. That's what intelligence agencies do. Find ways to target national threats, and hopefully this new threat will be patched pretty quick for everyone else.

2

u/Longey 2h ago

Oh nice.

Drebin. You sly fuck.

•

u/Joe_Sisyphus 8m ago

An Israeli company used a zero day vulnerability in Chrome to get it to install spyware on the machines of reporters at Al Jazeera. It's a zero-click exploit that only requires the ad to be visible on the web page.

•

u/1_ofthesedays 1h ago

Israel is a virus.

•

u/whoopercheesie 35m ago

They should be genocided ? 

•

u/sounddude 25m ago

No, but they should be held to full account for their actions and atrocities.

•

u/physchy 26m ago

Bro what? No one suggested that

•

u/Skabonious 0m ago

Why wouldn't you want to eradicate a virus

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u/ClumzyMunky 41m ago

There was a single click. It was the chrome download. Uninstall chrome.

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u/JahBoiii 16m ago

What are you suggesting? That chrome is the only web browser with vulnerabilities?

-65

u/AayushS1008 1h ago

Good. Fuck Al Jazeera.

•

u/Mushieman 34m ago

Ignore this Indian bot, probably thinks Modi is a saint and Israel will treat Indians special haha

•

u/nightmare_floofer 1h ago

Hey numbnuts, this is also a public privacy & security issue, meaning not just the guys you don't like

•

u/BmuthafuckinMagic 1h ago

You're probably one of those buffoons that think Al Jazeera broadcast beheadings back in the day when they first started. There are actually a lot of well credentialed and respected journalists there.

•

u/dgreenbe 1h ago

The problem is the Al Jazeera and the people doing the beheadings are both funded by the same state

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u/MUIGUR 55m ago

Fair. Can you apply this standard to Western countries?

Oh, wait. West plays by different rules.

Seriously this is a braidead take. It's like saying European/American state funded charity projects are bad because of their other projects. Fine. What about free healthcare in France that is supporting the genocide in Gaza? Do you oppose it?

Again double standards, double standards everywhere.

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u/ComaDuck 36m ago

Hey listen I'm gonna get downvoted into oblivion for saying this, but I'm not in favor of beheadings

•

u/UnicornLock 1h ago

“It’s disastrous that major ad vendors and organisations apparently were neither able to detect nor prevent the company’s malicious advertising operations for years,” said Wolfie Christl, a researcher at Citizen Lab. “The way the online advertising ecosystem works today is a security threat for states, the private sector, civil society and everyone else alike.”

But it's good cause Al Jazeera is one of the known targets. Propaganda rotting your brain.

•

u/dgreenbe 1h ago

Fair, but cybersecurity issues aren't necessarily siloed like this -- the attacker can have more targets, and other entities can try to use the same attacks. But also once it's known defenses can be put up and holes in the ad companies allowing this could be plugged