Candiru
More info
- Released
- 2014
- Type
- Surveillance vendor
Israeli spyware firm that changed its name more often than its exploits, until Microsoft gave it a nickname of its own.
Founded in Tel Aviv in 2014, it has since been registered under a string of names, Saito Tech among them, to stay out of sight. The name comes from a parasitic Amazon fish with a notorious reputation. Unlike NSO Group, which focused on phones, Candiru concentrated heavily on Windows machines and sold exclusively to government customers.
In July 2021 Citizen Lab and Microsoft published coordinated reports: Microsoft named the implant DevilsTongue, patched two Windows vulnerabilities it relied on and found victims among journalists, activists and dissidents. That November the US Commerce Department put Candiru and NSO Group on the Entity List, cutting off their access to American technology.