US imposes visa bans on 13 spyware makers and their families

The U.S. State Department announced visa bans on 13 individuals and their families linked to commercial spyware as part of a broader push to counter mercenary surveillance tools, alongside an Executive Order restricting U.S. government use, international principles via the Freedom Online Coalition, and BIS Entity List additions targeting Intellexa and Cytrox; the report also notes Apple alerts to users in 92 countries about a mercenary spyware attack and Google/Mandiant findings that commercial surveillance vendors drove half of 2023 zero-day exploits affecting Google and Android products.