SINGAPORE: Following an investigative report by a Canadian watchdog that identified the use of Israeli-made spyware against journalists and dissidents around the world, little-known spyware firm QuaDream has reportedly shut down.

According to Israeli news outlet Haaretz, the firm behind the spyware known as Reign had been downsizing for several months, with the remainder of its employees being called in for a pre-termination hearing on April 16.

Citing people familiar with the matter, Haaretz said QuaDream halted its operations in Israel due to the culmination of several factors, including a lack of sales, increasingly stricter regulations imposed by the Israeli government, and the release of the April 11 report by Citizen Lab, which is based at the University of Toronto.

The academic research lab, which studies the abuse of digital technologies, said it identified at least five people who were targeted by QuaDream spyware, although it did not specify their identities in its report.

It also traced suspected operating servers to 10 countries - Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ghana, Israel, Mexico, Romania, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.

When asked if Singapore employs the spyware, a spokesman for the Ministry of Home Affairs said the Government does not generally provide details of how security agencies carry out their work.

“Our security agencies’ task is to keep Singapore safe, secure and sovereign. Serious threats to national security are varied, and include terrorism, and foreign subversion, espionage and interference,” he added.

The response echoed the one given by then-Minister of State for Home Affairs Desmond Tan in Parliament when asked about the Government’s use of QuaDream by Workers’ Party MP Leon Perera in February 2022.

After bringing up examples of threats to national security, Tan had said then: “To this end, agencies charged with the mission of safeguarding national security necessarily have to rely on a range of intelligence capabilities, including harnessing technology.

“For obvious reasons, the Government cannot and should not discuss specifics on any operational aspects or capabilities regarding our national security.”

As QuaDream does not have a website or a social media presence, The Straits Times sent an email to its lawyer, Vibeke Dank, on April 17 to determine the identities of its clients in Singapore.

Dank, who is listed on Israeli corporate registration documents as being authorised to sign legal documents for the firm, has not responded so far.

According to Citizen Lab’s report, QuaDream’s spyware had been deployed against Apple devices running iOS 14.

In that version of Apple’s mobile operating system, calendar invitations sent on iCloud with a backdated time were processed automatically and added to the user’s calendar without any prompts or notifications.

This allowed the spyware to proliferate through a user’s device, allowing third parties to record audio from phone calls and the microphone, take pictures through the device’s cameras, and track the device’s location, to name a few examples.

It also contained a self-destruct feature that would wipe any traces left behind by the spyware, leaving users none the wiser.

Although the exploits that were designed for iOS 14 have since been patched, with the latest operating system version being iOS 16.4.1, it is likely that the spyware has been upgraded to target newer versions of iOS, a separate report by Microsoft Threat Intelligence said.

 - ANN