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The company that makes the software "says it sells the tool exclusively to governments" as though they're trying to take a moral stand and say "we only see it to the good guys". When in fact they sell to governments that are highly oppressive and corrupt. It's a farce.
Same shit as with Hacking Team.. They're Israeli's who also sell to the UAE. Lol.
*Italians
Important note: while in other countries the information acquired via this hacking could be used to blackmail or imprison their targets, in Mexico they are just shot dead.
Governments amplified by technology and unconstrained by law are the largest threat to human liberty I can think of.
How about any organization (distinct group of humans)?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
We need to avoid the slippery slope of blaming the tools. There are open source and commercial solutions that implement much of the same functionality. If you blame the tools Hacking Team or NSO or whomever, disappears into the oblivion, and two more spawn to take their place. Meanwhile we build a popular opinion that these things are dangerous and need to be restricted or regulated. Software ends up as the new "burg…
Having up to date Android and iOS zero days plus the rootkit / RAT software is not something you can get open source or find easily commercially. There's a reason this company is charging hundreds of thousands of dollars to target only 10s of phones... I wouldn't downplay the gatekeeper aspect of these companies and the technical investment it takes for non technical governments to do this stuff. But generally I agre…
You might be right about not being able to find 0days that target the latest versions of iOS or Android so easily, but there are dark web markets stuffed with 0days that target specific versions, or a range of versions. Not sure about pricing, but they're typically cheaper than the exploits that target the latest and greatest.
It's by pure chance that the owner of a device is using an out-dated O.S on their phone. Others may argue it's not by chance, but by design, and that some phones can't upgrade properly and remain locked to a specific version..You know, because governments sometimes demand that phones are deliberately left unpatched so they can do interception or do ex-filtration on them?
We are heading into an interesting future. The NSO Groups biggest owner Francisco Partners has both Software and Semiconductor companies in its portfolio, like Dell Software. Should I be worried about the firmware in my Dell computer? When everything becomes entangled like this it's impossible to know who to trust. And in the end it doesn't really matter what intent you have if people don't trust you.
Its honestly the only way to be "sure" if worry about a manufacturer doing that sort of thing. It won't be perfect but the odds of someone targeting you for hardware spyware is prettttttttty low. And most manufacturers of comp enthusiast parts know its suicide to do it mass-market like that.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
We need to avoid the slippery slope of blaming the tools. There are open source and commercial solutions that implement much of the same functionality. If you blame the tools Hacking Team or NSO or whomever, disappears into the oblivion, and two more spawn to take their place. Meanwhile we build a popular opinion that these things are dangerous and need to be restricted or regulated. Software ends up as the new "burg…
I don't understand this argument. If you build and sell tools that enable online surveillance, you bear a special responsibility not to sell them to people who will abuse them. Building surveillance tools and selling them to repressive governments is blameworthy. Equally blameworthy, but rarely remarked upon, is the practice of selling generic computing infrastructure that you know will be used to build surveillance…
The company that makes the software "says it sells the tool exclusively to governments" as though they're trying to take a moral stand and say "we only see it to the good guys". When in fact they sell to governments that are highly oppressive and corrupt. It's a farce.
There is evil, and there is more evil.
The company that makes the software "says it sells the tool exclusively to governments" as though they're trying to take a moral stand and say "we only see it to the good guys". When in fact they sell to governments that are highly oppressive and corrupt. It's a farce.
Also consider that the Mexican government and "cartels" have a lot of overlap. Local governments and municipal police departments in particular.