Study with over 28 thousand people identifies mechanism that may aid in the treatment of hereditary blood diseases

Researchers from a digital defense firm found that an Israeli company specializing in advertising technology (ad-tech) was actively targeting users of the satellite internet service Starlink, likely for surveillance purposes. This was reported by six sources familiar with the situation.

Researchers at TrendAI, a division of Tokyo-based Trend Micro, concluded that the Israeli firm Discover-Tech was one of the largest sources of digital advertising shown to Starlink users from SpaceX. According to these six individuals, the advertising was likely used for geolocation or other forms of tracking.

The researchers used digital advertising data from TrendAI telemetry collected by security products. They established that Discover-Tech became one of the global leaders in bidding for advertising targeted at Starlink users and was a major participant in Starlink traffic auctions in over 100 countries, including territories where Starlink itself is banned or restricted. The auctions relate to a complex auction system through which advertisers gain placement in people's browsers and applications.

SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment. Discover-Tech and its CEO also did not respond to inquiries over the past two weeks.

TrendAI released a report on Starlink user targeting on October 15, but it did not name Discover-Tech. Instead, it indicated that the responsible party was an 'ad-tech entity' which it named 'Shadow-Earth-79.' The six sources clarified that Shadow-Earth-79 is TrendAI's codename for Discover-Tech.

TrendAI did not provide direct answers regarding why the name Shadow-Earth-79 was not mentioned in the report. In a statement, the company explained that its attribution approach aims to minimize the risk of errors and avoid 'hype-driven labels' or 'unstable actor names that could mislead defenders, distort risk prioritization, and provoke inappropriate countermeasures.'

Industry searching for tracking methods

The search for methods to track Starlink users has turned into a kind of makeshift industry, as governments worldwide attempt to control the spread of satellite internet terminals. Since these terminals transmit data via satellites managed by SpaceX, rather than through nationally regulated telecommunications companies, they are capable of bypassing local internet restrictions, communicating in hostile zones, or coordinating actions on battlefields. Starlink has become an especially important resource in Ukraine, whose army relies on this service for frontline communication and directing drone strikes.

In May, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz and the website Intelligence Online independently reported that Israeli enterprises were offering clients ways to identify and track Starlink users. Haaretz noted that the use of advertising data apparently played a key role in this process.

On the same day TrendAI published its report on Shadow-Earth-79, the Canadian cyber oversight body Citizen Lab and the New York ad-tech firm Confiant named Discover-Tech. Both groups stated that the Israeli company was abusing the advertising auction process, which can reveal internet user data to the auction participant. Over time, auction participants can collect these data leaks, aggregate them, and combine them with other information to de-anonymize users, track them across the network, and, in some cases, profile them for tracking via surveillance software.

Citizen Lab and Confiant reported that advertisements were displayed within dozens of private networks belonging to media organizations, governments, and technology companies. In response to investigations, Google, Comcast, and other companies stated that they had removed Discover-Tech from their advertising platforms.

According to one of the six sources and another person familiar with the matter, at least one large American technology company and one international organization have recently begun internal reviews regarding whether their employees were targeted by Discover-Tech advertising.

The TrendAI report referenced suspicious bidding patterns suggesting that Shadow-Earth-79 was running a 'targeting and tracking infrastructure, not a commercial advertising operation.' In addition to a 'clear bias' in purchasing advertising aimed at Starlink users, the report indicated that Shadow-Earth-79 was the largest advertiser in Syria, Libya, Yemen, and South Sudan, and the second largest in Afghanistan, despite 'the demand for legitimate Western advertising in sanctioned or active conflict zones being virtually zero.' It was noted that this structure received an 'improbably dominant share' of bids in several countries, including Hungary, Israel, Egypt, Azerbaijan, and Venezuela.

The six individuals reported that TrendAI researchers were convinced of Discover-Tech's involvement in the suspicious bidding and discussed the possibility of naming the company in the report. However, they abandoned this idea after TrendAI executives raised legal concerns.

Self-censorship

Security industry experts note that self-censorship is common in cybersecurity, especially when executives fear that disclosing surveillance operations could provoke countermeasures.

Earlier this year, the American cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks excluded explicit mentions of China from a report on a global cyber espionage campaign, even though its researchers were confident that the hacking could be linked to Beijing, as Reuters reported at the time. Reuters reported that the report was softened due to fears that naming China would create problems for Palo Alto's operations there, which were already under scrutiny following a Beijing directive ordering domestic companies not to use its products. Palo Alto stated that the lack of attribution in its report does not correlate with 'Chinese procurement regulatory requirements,' and that any other assumption is 'speculative and false.'

Astronomers have discovered an unprecedented structure around a dead star in our universe: two separate rings formed by the remnants of ancient planetary bodies. This system orbits the white dwarf J1328−1450 and could potentially help scientists understand the fate of planets and other celestial bodies after a Sun-like star completes its life cycle.

A white dwarf is an extremely dense core left behind after a star like the Sun has exhausted its fuel, expanded, and lost its outer layers. During this process, nearby planets can be destroyed, while other bodies might survive only to fragment later, forming disks of dust and gas around the star.

However, in the case of J1328−1450, astronomers found something different. Instead of one continuous disk, the remnants are distributed across two distinct rings separated by clear space. According to the authors, such a configuration has never been observed around a white dwarf before.

Bodies may survive the death of a star

“This is the first observation of a complex system with a double remnant disk and potentially two surviving planetesimals,” stated Nicola Gentile Fusillo, an astronomer from the University of Trieste in Italy and the study's lead author.

The researchers' main hypothesis is that two planetary bodies are still orbiting the white dwarf and helping to maintain the separation of the two rings. These objects were not directly detected; their existence was inferred based on the shape and behavior of the observed gas around the star.

The closest body could be asteroid-sized, while the farthest could be comparable to Ceres, Pluto, or even the Moon, depending on its composition and exact distance from the star. The study suggests that the presence of two bodies in different orbits also helps explain why the gas remains concentrated in two separate regions without filling the space between them.

Astronomers also identified differences in the composition of the two rings. The ring closer to the star is rich in magnesium, whereas the more distant one contains significantly less of this element. For the researchers, this may indicate that the remnants originated from two different planetary bodies. Another possibility is that they come from different parts of a single object, such as the inner and outer layers of an ancient planet or rocky body.

In addition to magnesium, elements such as calcium, oxygen, and iron were identified. The overall composition is similar to materials found in the inner part of our Solar System.

How does this relate to the future of the Solar System?

This system could serve as a kind of portrait of a very distant phase in the future of our own Solar System. In billions of years, the Sun will also turn into a white dwarf. Before this happens, it will expand and drastically change the surrounding system, potentially destroying the nearest planets.

Some bodies that survive this transformation may continue to orbit the Sun's remnant. Over time, collisions and other interactions can fragment them and scatter the remnants around the star. This is the scenario astronomers observe in J1328−1450.

Filipe Lagos-Vilches, a co-author of the study, noted: “This system offers a remarkable view of what the future of planetary systems, including ours, might look like.” The discovery also demonstrates that the end of a planetary system can be more complex than previously assumed.

According to the researchers, the ring structure found around the dead star resembles formations observed in disks around young stars where planets are still forming. This similarity suggests that processes capable of organizing matter into rings may operate during both the birth and final stages of planetary systems.