Mastodawn

Last year, a member of the Spanish parliament sent a letter to the government asking what it thinks about the fact that there are several Israeli offensive cybersecurity folks in Barcelona working on spyware, and whether the government wants to do anything about it.

https://www.congreso.es/entradap/l15p/e5/e_0053286_n_000.pdf

The government answered that the Ministry of Defense has no information at all about the issues raised in the letter.

https://www.congreso.es/entradap/l15p/e5/e_0057785_n_000.pdf

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Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai Jan 20

This letter came around the time stories us and Haaretz published stories about the presence of several Israeli (and from other countries too) offensive cybersecurity and spyware companies in Barcelona.

https://techcrunch.com/2025/01/13/how-barcelona-became-an-unlikely-hub-for-spyware-startups/

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/security-aviation/2024-12-26/ty-article/.premium/israeli-hackers-flock-to-barcelona-as-spyware-industry-shifts/00000193-fec4-df5b-a9b3-fec5d9dc0000

How Barcelona became an unlikely hub for spyware startups | TechCrunch

Barcelona's mix of affordable cost of living and quality of life has helped create a vibrant startup community — and become a hotbed for the creation of surveillance technologies.

TechCrunch

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Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai Jan 20

The Catalan newspaper Ara covered this recently, with the news peg that there was a closed-door conference where many of these companies were present last week.

https://es.ara.cat/sociedad/sucesos/barcelona-paraiso-soleado-sede-clandestina-ciberespionaje-mundial-durante-24-horas_1_5617751.html

Barcelona, sede mundial de una reunión secreta de espías durante 24 horas

Varias empresas se encuentran en una ubicación secreta del Eixample para hablar de las vulnerabilidades de los sistemas informáticos

Ara en Castellano