Israeli ad tech firm tied to suspected Starlink tracking effort, report claims

Discover-Tech, an Israeli advertising technology company, has reportedly been linked to a suspected surveillance effort aimed at Starlink users, according to Reuters. The report, citing six people familiar with the matter, claims the firm was the top bidder for ad space tied to Starlink traffic in more than 100 countries.

Researchers suspect the aggressive bidding strategy was designed to reveal user locations or enable further monitoring, though the findings don't confirm that any actual tracking took place. The data comes from TrendAI, the research arm of Trend Micro.

Research findings

In its October 15 report, TrendAI referred to the activity as 'Shadow-Earth-79' without initially naming the company. The report now claims this codename belongs to Discover-Tech. TrendAI emphasized that its attribution process is designed to avoid 'hype-driven labels' that could mislead security teams.

Our approach reduces the risk of misattribution, hype-driven labels, and unstable actor names that can mislead defenders, distort risk prioritization, and trigger inappropriate response actions.

Global reach

The alleged bidding activity occurred in over 100 countries, including regions where Starlink service is banned. This widespread scope suggests a coordinated effort to potentially monitor or track users across different geopolitical boundaries, though the exact motives remain unclear without further evidence.