Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Friday May 24 2019, @07:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the No-Such-Organization dept.

Israeli firm linked to WhatsApp spyware attack faces lawsuit

The Israeli firm linked to this week's WhatsApp hack is facing a lawsuit backed by Amnesty International, which says it fears its staff may be under surveillance from spyware installed via the messaging service.

The human rights group's concerns are detailed in a lawsuit filed in Israel by about 50 members and supporters of Amnesty International Israel and others from the human rights community. It has called on the country's ministry of defence to ban the export of NSO's Pegasus software, which can covertly take control of a mobile phone, copy its data and turn on the microphone for surveillance.

An affidavit from Amnesty is at the heart of the case, and concludes that "staff of Amnesty International have an ongoing and well-founded fear they may continue to be targeted and ultimately surveilled" after a hacking attempt last year.

NSO Group, founded in 2010, supplies industry-leading surveillance software to governments that it says is for tackling terrorism and serious crime, and has been licensed to dozens of countries including Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Bahrain and the UAE.

But there have been a string of complaints in the past few months, documented largely by the Toronto-based Citizen Lab, that the technology has been used to target human rights groups, activists and journalists by several countries – and that there has been no attempt to rein it in.

See also: After WhatsApp hack, NSO faces scrutiny from Facebook and UK public pension fund
WhatsApp's security breach: Made in Israel, implemented worldwide
WhatsApp Rushes to Fix Security Flaw Exposed in Hacking of Lawyer's Phone

Previously: A WhatsApp Call Can Hack a Phone: Zero-Day Exploit Infects Mobiles with Spyware

Related: Israeli Spy Tech Company Allegedly Cracks WhatsApp Encryption (2016)
Former NSO Employee Arrested After Attempting to Sell Spyware for $50 Million
Agents Target Researchers who Reported Software that Spied on Jamal Khashoggi before his Death


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Flamebait) by VLM on Friday May 24 2019, @10:28PM (5 children)

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Friday May 24 2019, @10:28PM (#847383)

    The Israeli firm

    Isn't it antisemitic to complain about their actions? You know they're not going to get any unfavorable press coverage.

    a lawsuit backed by Amnesty International

    Can hear the whining on CNN already "Alt right nazis filed a lawsuit against ..."

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   -1  
       Flamebait=1, Total=1
    Extra 'Flamebait' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @11:31PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @11:31PM (#847412)

    Can hear the whining on CNN already

    https://www.ngo-monitor.org/amnesty-international-singling-out-jews-in-2019/ [ngo-monitor.org]

    Isn't it antisemitic to complain about their actions? You know they're not going to get any unfavorable press coverage.

    Depends. Are you going to call for banning American goods over the treatments of immigrants, minorities and prisoners in the US? Are you going to boycott Chinese products over their actions? Or the Russians maybe?

    Alternatively, locally, when a school shooting occurs, do you point the finger at the gun companies and complain about their actions?

    Israel does a lot of bad things. But quantitatively and qualitatively it just doesn't compare to anything else done in the region. It's fine to hold them to a higher standard being a nuclear power. But unless you consistently apply the same moral absolutism standards to the other nuclear powers, that specific form of hypocrisy is probably antisemitic.

    • (Score: 2, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday May 25 2019, @12:19AM

      by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday May 25 2019, @12:19AM (#847432) Homepage

      School and Synagogue shootings are done by Mossad. Everybody knows that whether or not people actually "died" in those shootings, Mossad and crisis actors are behind it.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by shortscreen on Saturday May 25 2019, @08:01AM

      by shortscreen (2252) on Saturday May 25 2019, @08:01AM (#847534) Journal

      Depends. Are you going to call for banning American goods over the treatments of immigrants, minorities and prisoners in the US? Are you going to boycott Chinese products over their actions? Or the Russians maybe?

      Alternatively, locally, when a school shooting occurs, do you point the finger at the gun companies and complain about their actions?

      Israel does a lot of bad things. But quantitatively and qualitatively it just doesn't compare to anything else done in the region.

      The difference between Israel and other random countries that do bad things, is that those other countries don't wield massive influence in Washington D.C. nor are they continuously held up as paragons of freedom and democracy.

      Many Americans were upset about the (bogus) idea that Trump had loyalties to the Russian government. Why shouldn't they be upset about a foreign country for which politicians have openly declared loyalties, which receives foreign aid, and which has a clear influence on US foreign policy?

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @01:47PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 25 2019, @01:47PM (#847583)

      > ...it just doesn't compare to anything else done in the region.

      nice try mossad shill

  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @11:48PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 24 2019, @11:48PM (#847419)

    Any criticism of Israel is antisemitic. Even indirect criticism.