Spanish spyware startup Mollitiam Industries shuts down

Molitium Industries, a small and short-learned Spanish spyware maker, is closing.

Startup Was first reported Intelligence and surveillance trading the new website Intelligence Online, which blamed the company’s collapse on financial issues. Public Business Records Confirm that the company has filed for bankruptcy on January 25.

Not like Hacking team, NSO groupAnd now ParagonThe Molitium Industries, which is located in Tildo, a city outside Madrid in Spain, has worked out of the public view. In some parts, the nature of the privacy spyware industry is only one consequence: there are plenty of vendors around the world and a significant amount of them does not want any promotion.

Another reason for the promotion of the Molitium Industries can have less relationships with the spyware industry and Spyware startup was located in Spain, which is not much focused on the international English language media outlets, and the fact that Molitium Industries is only known to a scandal in Colombia. Was, it was another place that could be unexpected in the English -speaking world.

At the time of writing, Molitium Industries’ Official website Still online. The company did not respond to any request for comment sent to the email address listed on the site. When the TechCrunch Company called a phone number listed on the Google Maps list, the line was busy. Accordingly The Official LinkedIn AccountMolitium Industries had 11 to 50 employees.

In 2021, the Molitium Industries first attracted the attention of the English -speaking media. Report at the time at Wired A brochure startup leaving third party online showed spyware products known as Invisible Man and Night Cracler, which activates the camera and microphone of the device, including Telegram and WhatsApp applications, designed to hide data from target devices to the target devices. Do and log the keystrokes.

Years ago, in 2020, Colombia’s News Magazine SEMANO reported Its journalists and its offices were physically and digital by the country’s military intelligence agency, whose agents threatened journalists in which their tombs were transmitted. The surveillance and intimidation campaign came after the magazine investigation was published on the wrongdoing of the military in 2019.

“A Cyber-intellect colonel offered me 50 million peso [around $15,000 at the time] Semina was able to introduce a malware (virus) on the computer of journalists and thus accessing the information, “a source told Magazine.

That malware was obviously developed by the Molitium Industries, According to a picture of an agreement Molitium Industries.

The document shows that the military agency has suggested about 3 billion peso (about $ 900,000) to acquire a system called “homebrey” (or invisible man). The software was alleged that Macos and Windows devices were able to be infected from both far away by hiding inside office documents and hiding through USB drive. Malware can bypass the antivirus software and allow military officers to infect a “unlimited” active target.

“This tool allows us to do all things: Enter any computer, access whatsApp and telegram web calls and conversations, archive or deleted chat conversations, photos, and download whatever has been stored in the memory of the infected machine,” Semina The

The same year as the Colombia scandal, the Molitium Industries Gave an online talk Through the ISS World, a series of conferences for companies that want to sell products to law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

The company wrote in the conversation that the last to the end of the end encryption made the intention of the intention of the person who had the need to use malware to compromise on the target device for access to access to their contacts. In accordance with“Molitium software will explain the roots of this approach through demonstrations and share innovative features like recordings of WhatsApp VoIP calls.”

The Molitium Industries was active in the end of 2021, according to the meta. In the early 2024, Meta In a report said It removed a network of fake accounts on Facebook and Instagram that was associated with the Mollyitium Industries.

“The Molitium Industries and its customers opened fake accounts that they used to test the corruption capacity between their own accounts and scrap the public information. Like other surveillance companies, they used the IP-Logging links to identify the IP addresses of their goals, “Read the report.” They mainly anti-journalists, anti-corruption activists and leaders against police torture mainly Spain, Colombia and Peru Also involved in phishing and social engineering targeting people. ”

Spain, and especially Barcelona, Recently became a hotbed for Spyware StartupsSome of them established foreigners for the recruitment of security researchers in Italy and other countries, including Israel.

Although the company has received relatively little attention, its activities were tracked by Amnesty International. Amnesty International’s Protection Lab technician Zure Van Bergen TechCrunch told him that he and his colleagues found the Windows samples of Malitium Industries and identified a command and control server that was sensored on sensors, an online search engine for internet-connected devices. ” Login, ”is a clear reference to the company’s products.

Van Bergen told TechCrunch, “A spyware manufacturer is extremely OP to not be left behind the firewall.” “I guess they are not surprised because they have gone bankrupt because of their op.”