Markets Matter - A Glance into the Spyware Industry
The Intellexa Consortium, a complex web of holding companies and vendors for spyware and related services, have been the subject of recent, extensive sanctions by the US Department of the Treasury and the focus of reporting by the European Investigative Collaborations among others. The Consortium represents a compelling example of spyware vendors in the context of the market in which they operate—one which helps facilitate the commercial sale of software driving both human rights and national security risk.1 This paper addresses an international policy effort among US partners and allies, led by the French and British governments, as well as a surge of US policy attention to address the proliferation of this spyware. This paper offers a case study of the Intellexa Consortium, based on public records and open source reporting, as an argument for policymakers to consider the wider network of investors and counterparties present in this market rather than constraining their focus on individual vendors. This consortium showcases many of the trends observed in how other spyware vendors organize, straddle jurisdictions, and create overlapping ownership structures. This paper argues that policymakers must approach the market as a whole, a large and complex but interlinked system, in designing future policy interventions against these vendors and their respective supply chains. In closing, the paper offers several tangible impacts and insights into this market, calling for greater transparency writ large, but also for increased attention into the individuals and investors that facilitate the proliferation of spyware.