Citizen Lab investigation says dozens of Al Jazeera devices were infected by malware planted through advertisements.
Israeli advertising technology company Discover-Tech helped place spyware on dozens of devices used by Al Jazeera and other companies.
Al Jazeera Media Network on Thursday said it “condemns the targeting of devices belonging to several of its employees with spyware” and pledged to continue to “protect its employees and systems”.
The network said targeting journalists is an “assault on press freedom and the public’s right to knowledge” and called for those responsible to be held accountable.
A Citizen Lab investigation, prompted by Al Jazeera’s initial internal probe into the issue, has confirmed that spyware from Candiru, an Israeli spyware firm blacklisted by the United States government in 2021 for its malicious cyber activities, was planted on these devices, using the first-known instance of “zero-click” targeted advertising.
The nature of installing this spyware means that once an infected advertisement appears on a device, that device, too, is infected – spying on, and feeding, all the data and information available on that platform to those stealing it.
The malicious software is designed to collect a wide range of sensitive data, including files, documents, and browser data such as cookies, bookmarks, and saved credentials. It can also capture keystrokes, take screenshots, record microphone and webcam input, and extract emails and messages from popular communication platforms.
To avoid triggering security mechanisms, the spyware often uses encrypted communication channels and breaks up stolen data into smaller chunks sent over time.
The particular tool used is understood to have cost several million dollars.
The incident highlights the sophisticated nature of threats posed by groups like Candiru, and their customers, who use techniques to bypass modern security defences.
The Citizen Lab, a research unit at the University of Toronto, concluded in its report that Discover-Tech purchased the advertisements with built-in spyware. It then directed devices to Candiru’s malware through these advertisements.
Al Jazeera journalists were among the millions whose devices were targeted – including several who reported on sensitive subjects.
Al Jazeera’s in-house technology team first discovered unusual patterns on devices used by some journalists in 2024. The pattern continued into 2025. Al Jazeera reached out to Citizen Lab for a more detailed investigation into its suspicions that spyware was responsible for the activity.
“Analysis of network logs provided to the Citizen Lab by Al Jazeera collected during the attack period provides a clear temporal signature of how the attack was executed,” the University of Toronto-based team said in its report published Thursday.
Al Jazeera said that the cooperation “contributed to verifying these attacks and publicly documenting them”.
Meanwhile, New York-based advertising security firm Confiant said in a separate report that some of Discover-Tech’s advertisements also appeared in critical networks used by the Pentagon, the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency and the International Criminal Court.
Candiru’s spyware has previously been used to carry out surveillance on at least 100 journalists, dissidents and others in several countries.