Microsoft says Israeli group sold tools to hack into Windows OS

An Israeli group sold a tool to hack into Microsoft Windows, Microsoft and technology human rights group Citizen Lab said on Thursday, shedding light on the growing business of finding and selling tools to hack widely used software.

The hacking tool vendor, named Candiru, created and sold a software exploit that can penetrate Windows, one of many intelligence products sold by a secretive industry that finds flaws in common software platforms for their clients, said a report by Citizen Lab.

Technical analysis by security researchers details how Candiru’s hacking tool spread around the globe to numerous unnamed customers, where it was then used to target various civil society organizations, including a Saudi dissident group and a left-leaning Indonesian news outlet, the reports by Citizen Lab and Microsoft show.