❗️Israeli firm flooded Starlink users with ads in suspected surveillance campaign Experts at a digital security firm recently discovered that an Israeli advertising technology company was extensively targeting users of Starlink's satellite internet service, potentially as part of an effort to spy on them, according to Reuters citing six people familiar with the matter. Researchers at TrendAI, a division of Tokyo-based cybersecurity company Trend Micro, found that Israeli firm Discover-Tech was among the largest sources of digital advertisements served to Starlink users. The ads were likely being used to determine users' geographic locations or otherwise monitor their activities, the six sources said. The researchers based their findings on digital advertising data collected through TrendAI's telemetry systems. Their analysis showed that Discover-Tech had emerged as one of the world's leading bidders for advertisements targeting Starlink users, ranking first in Starlink traffic in more than 100 countries, including several where the satellite internet service is banned or restricted. Bidding is part of the automated auction system through which advertisers compete to place ads in users' browsers and applications. On 15 October, TrendAI published a report examining the targeting of Starlink users but did not identify Discover-Tech by name. Instead, it attributed the activity to “an ad tech entity” designated as “Shadow-Earth-79.” According to the six sources, Shadow-Earth-79 is TrendAI's codename for Discover-Tech. TrendAI did not directly address questions about why its report withheld the entity's name. In a statement, the company said its approach to attribution was designed to minimize the risk of errors and avoid "hype-driven labels" or "unstable actor names that can mislead defenders, distort risk prioritization, and trigger inappropriate response actions."