Hack of Egyptian Politician’s iPhone Tied to Tech Firm Sandvine

(Bloomberg) — A hack that compromised the iPhone of a presidential candidate in Egypt has been linked to the computer networking company Sandvine Inc., whose equipment has previously been used by Belarus and other countries to censor the internet.

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Ahmed Eltantawy, a prominent opposition politician, had his phone breached between May and September after he announced his plans to run in Egypt’s 2024 presidential elections, according to an analysis from the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. After conducting a forensic examination of the device, the researchers concluded with “high confidence” that the Egyptian government was behind the hack.

Eltantawy’s phone was infected with a spyware known as Predator, manufactured by North Macedonian surveillance technology firm Cytrox, the researchers found. He was lured into clicking links contained in fake security alerts that purported to be from the messaging service WhatsApp. His phone was silently redirected to a malicious website, and spyware was “injected” onto his phone with the help of technology sold by Sandvine, according to Citizen Lab’s report.

Sandvine “does not make, sell or collaborate with spyware or malware vendors,” according to an emailed statement provided to Bloomberg, which also said its products were not “capable of injecting malware or spyware.” The statement referred instead to a technique called “packet redirection,” which it said was a capability “sold by all major vendors in the space and used millions of times a day.”

“Sandvine makes products for telecom companies that enable the internet to function and to ensure that citizens have high quality access to information worldwide,” according to the statement.

Representatives from Cytrox and the Egyptian government didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Sandvine, originally founded in Canada, was acquired by San Francisco-based private equity firm Francisco Partners and combined with Procera Networks in 2017, in a deal worth $444 million. The company makes equipment, known as “deep packet inspection” technology, that can be used to manage massive flows of internet traffic passing between networks. The…