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Israeli Spyware Maker Is in Spotlight Amid Reports of Wide Abuses

posted by janrinok on Tuesday July 20 2021, @12:36AM   
from the NSO:-No-Such-Operation dept.

takyon writes:

Israeli Spyware Maker Is in Spotlight Amid Reports of Wide Abuses

Data leaked to a consortium of news organizations suggests that several countries use Pegasus, a powerful cyberespionage tool, to spy on rights activists, dissidents and journalists.

A major Israeli cyber-surveillance company, NSO Group, came under heightened scrutiny Sunday after an international alliance of news outlets reported that governments used its software to target journalists, dissidents and opposition politicians.

The Israeli government also faced renewed international pressure for allowing the company to do business with authoritarian regimes that use the spyware for purposes that go far afield of the company's stated aim: targeting terrorists and criminals.

[...] The allegations may escalate concerns that the Israeli government has abetted government abuses by granting NSO an export license to sell software to countries that use it to suppress dissent.

The accounts, published by The Washington Post and an alliance of 16 other international news outlets, follow recent reporting by The [New York] Times that Israel permitted NSO to do business with Saudi Arabia, and encouraged it to keep doing so even after the Saudi government was implicated in the 2018 assassination of a Saudi journalist and dissident, Jamal Khashoggi.

Pegasus: The new global weapon for silencing journalists

Also at Business Insider, The Hill, The Verge, and Al Jazeera.

Related: Israeli Firm NSO Linked to WhatsApp Hack, Faces Lawsuit Backed by Amnesty International
Saudi Crown Prince's WhatsApp Account Reportedly Used to Hack Jeff Bezos
The Great iPwn -- Journalists Hacked with Suspected NSO Group iMessage 'Zero-Click' Exploit

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Original Submission

• Where do They Get the Exploits? Where do They Get the Exploits? (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20 2021, @02:40AM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20 2021, @02:40AM (#1158137)

  Schlomo and Chaim get jobs in Apple, Broadcom, or Qualcomm through nepotism. Schlomo and Chaim also have cousins in Israel who are current security entrepreneurs and former intelligence operatives. All mentioned so far have connections to unit 8200. Schlomo and Chaim discover existing zero-days or insert them in solidarity of global Jewry. Schlomo and Chaim's entrepreneurial cousins in Israel somehow "discover" said zero-days. Schlomo's cousin's startup makes money from exploring said zero-days (e.g. PEGASUS), Chaim's cousin's startup makes money from "discovering" the zero-days after a set period of time and certain conditions met, then uses the discovery to sell his security business. Schlomo's cousin and Chaim's cousin are both good buddies, by the way.

  One would assume that business is lucrative, but not lucrative enough for Jews. Which is why Schlomo and Chaim also have side-hustles exfiltrating their employers' drawings, schematics, and specifications; then selling them to China.

  I know, I know, it's kind of confusing, it makes my poor little head spin! But after you grok it a few times, you too will want in on the action!

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• Re:Where do They Get the Exploits? (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20 2021, @03:41AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 20 2021, @03:41AM (#1158146)

  And then when Shoa 2.0 comes, 'they' will all scream and complain. But now 'they' are sowing seeds and watering them copiously. Harvest day will be a mess.

  Parent