Researchers: An Israeli company used Internet ads to track hundreds of millions of users and help hack their devices

Cybersecurity researchers revealed that an Israeli advertising company used a wide network of electronic ads to track users and identify specific targets, while some of these ads helped plant spyware on devices. The company's advertisements reached more than 120,000 websites and 75,000 applications.

Two research groups said that the Israeli advertising company Discover-Tech used digital ads to track users online, and that some of these ads were used to help hack into targeted devices.

The results came in two separate reports prepared by the Canadian Citizen Lab and the American company Conviant, which specializes in advertising security.

According to Citizen Lab, Discover-Tech ads appeared on more than 120,000 websites and 75,000 apps, some of which were promoting ordinary products such as phones and headphones.

The researchers said that the user did not need to click on the ad, as its mere appearance on the website or application was sufficient in some cases to collect information about the user and his device and track him.

Reports also indicated that some of the ads were used to help plant spyware developed by the Israeli company Candero, which has been on the US Department of Commerce's blacklist since 2021.

Conviant said Discover-Tech was broadcasting at least 10 million ads per day around the world, and estimated that hundreds of millions of people may have been affected by its activity.

The ads appeared within sensitive networks linked to the US Department of Defense, the Pentagon, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the International Criminal Court.

Citizen Lab also said it had detected ads from users working for the United Nations, NATO, the European Commission, and more than a dozen governments.

The researchers pointed to the extensive spread of the company's advertisements in the Palestinian territories. Jerome Danjou, co-founder of Conviant, said that the presence of Discover-Tech ads was widespread on websites used within the Palestinian territories, which, in his estimation, gave the company a great ability to monitor users’ digital activity.

Citizen Lab said that a spy program belonging to the company Candero was used to hack 45 Windows devices into the Al Jazeera network during the years 2024 and 2025.

She added that she was able to verify this after analyzing network records provided by the media organization.

Google said that it banned “Discover-Tech” from its advertising platforms due to what it described as systematic violations of its policies.

The "IAB Europe" association also suspended the company's accreditation from its list of suppliers, while Comcast said that its advertising platform removed "Discover-Tech" after monitoring activities related to it.

The company, which was founded in 2020, did not respond to Reuters' attempts to obtain a comment.