The U.S. Treasury Department has reversed Biden-era sanctions imposed on executives Sara Hamou, Merom Harpaz, and Andrea Gambazzi, who had been subjected to punitive action due to their association with spyware vendor Intellexa, whose Predator spyware had been leveraged by governments and other threat actors for cyberespionage, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.
Such delisting of Hamou, who was said to be an off-shoring specialist who assisted Intellexa, Harpaz, who is a top executive at Intellexa, and Gambazzi, who owned a firm that conducted financial transaction processing for the spyware maker's entities, has sparked concern among digital rights advocates, who urged the Treasury Department to provide evidence showing that the individuals were no longer linked with Intellexa.
"Any hasty decisions to remove sanctions from individuals involved in attacking U.S. persons and interests risk signaling to bad actors that this behavior may come with little consequences," said Natalia Krapiva, senior tech legal counsel at Access Now.
Such delisting of Hamou, who was said to be an off-shoring specialist who assisted Intellexa, Harpaz, who is a top executive at Intellexa, and Gambazzi, who owned a firm that conducted financial transaction processing for the spyware maker's entities, has sparked concern among digital rights advocates, who urged the Treasury Department to provide evidence showing that the individuals were no longer linked with Intellexa.
"Any hasty decisions to remove sanctions from individuals involved in attacking U.S. persons and interests risk signaling to bad actors that this behavior may come with little consequences," said Natalia Krapiva, senior tech legal counsel at Access Now.
