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Citizen Lab researchers reported a campaign dubbed AdFection in which malicious ads containing zero-click exploits installed spyware on targeted phones without any user interaction. The group confirmed 45 infected devices at Al Jazeera during 2024 and 2025, and linked the ad delivery to Israeli company Discover-Tech, which brokers ad placements between advertisers and publishers.
Citizen Lab says it has confirmed the first publicly documented case of zero-click mercenary spyware spread through targeted online advertising, a method it calls 'AdFection.' The researchers say dozens of Al Jazeera devices were compromised via ads run by Discover-Tech, whose Controlium platform can profile and deanonymize internet users before silently infecting selected targets with no interaction required.
University of Toronto's Citizen Lab reports that Discover-Tech, an Israeli digital advertising agency, runs a platform called Controlium that profiles and deanonymises internet users through ordinary-looking ads, then enables third-party spyware firms to silently infect selected targets' devices without any click. Researchers say dozens of devices at Al Jazeera were compromised this way, and that millions of users worldwide have been served Discover-Tech ads since 2024, including in Yemen, Brazil, Mexico and Czechia.
Citizen Lab researchers identified a new spyware strain, called AdFection, that can infect phones and computers simply by displaying an ad, without any click required. The tool was built by Israeli firm Discover-Tech and used to target journalists and staff at Al Jazeera, NATO, the European Commission, NVIDIA and Arm, according to the report. Google has since suspended Discover-Tech from its ad platforms after a joint investigation with Citizen Lab and Confiant.
Security researchers say devices at Al Jazeera were infected with Candiru spyware (rebranded 'Integrity Labs') through targeted online ads, a technique they call AdFection. They identify Israeli firm Discover-Tech as the buyer of the malicious ads, running a platform called Controlium that can de-anonymize and infect devices automatically when an ad loads, with analysis of four billion bidding records showing ads served across nearly 200,000 sites and apps.
Security researchers at Citizen Lab and Confiant say Discover-Tech, an Israeli ad tech company, helped deliver spyware through online ads that required no user interaction to infect devices. The report links Discover-Tech's 'Controlium' platform to Candiru, a blacklisted Israeli spyware maker, and says at least 45 Al Jazeera devices were targeted in 2024 and 2025. Google, Beeswax, and IAB Europe have since removed or suspended Discover-Tech from their platforms.
Citizen Lab researchers report that Discover-Tech, an Israeli advertising company, has been used by spyware vendors Candiru and Bindecy to deliver zero-click hacking tools through malicious online ads. The group says at least 45 Windows computers at Al Jazeera were infected in 2024 and 2025 after exposure to tainted ads, though it could not identify which governments ordered the attacks.