Security News > 2022 > January > US counterintelligence shares tips to block spyware attacks
The US National Counterintelligence and Security Center and the Department of State have jointly published guidance on defending against attacks using commercial surveillance tools.
Tips shared in the joint advisory are designed to help people at risk of being targeted by surveillance campaigns block attempts to track their location, record their conversations, and harvest their personal information and online activity using mercenary spyware deployed on their mobile devices.
"In some cases, malign actors can infect a targeted device with no action from the device owner. In others, they can use an infected link to gain access to a device."
Regularly update device operating systems and mobile applications.
Reports of State Dept employees having their devices infected with spyware came after the US sanctioned NSO Group and three other companies from Israel, Russia, and Singapore for spyware development and selling hacking tools used by state-backed hacking groups.
In early November, Apple also filed a lawsuit against NSO for targeting and spying on Apple users after compromising their devices using the ForcedEntry exploit and Pegasus spyware as Citizen Lab revealed in August.