Facebook parent company Meta Platforms said it took down more than 200 covert influence operations since 2017 from 68 countries in 42 different languages. Most of them targeted people in their home countries, and only around one-third was aimed at audiences outside of their own countries, engaging in foreign interference.
Meta said that the US was the most targeted country by global CIB (Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior) operations, followed by Ukraine and the UK. Russia (34 networks), Iran (29 networks), and Mexico (13 networks) are said to be the main source of CIB networks, with Russia most often targeting Ukraine, African countries, and the US.
The company also disabled accounts and infrastructure operated by spyware vendors part of the surveillance-for-hire industry, including in China, Russia, Israel, the United States and India, that targeted individuals in about 200 countries. The list of spyware vendors includes Israeli spyware developer Candiru (founded by former NSO Group employees), a New York-based company called Social Links, an Israel-based company called Cyber Globes, a Russia-based firm called Avalanche and an unattributed entity in China.
“This industry exponentially increases the supply of threat actors by providing powerful surveillance capabilities to its clients against people who typically have no way of knowing they are being targeted,” Meta noted.
A more detailed threat report on the spyware industry is available here.