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Israel tries to limit fallout from the Pegasus spyware scandal

homelandsecuritynewswire.com

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Re: Israel tries to limit fallout from the Pegasus spyware scandal

#11
post #5
post #2

The genie might be out of the bottle here for them. A lot of investigative journalism now coming out (1) which shows that Pegasus is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Israeli spyware. (1) https://www.mintpressnews.com/meet-toka-the-most-dangerous-i...

That's a very questionable source. With such an overtly anti-Israel position, that's probably best taken with a large pinch of salt.

Do you actually have counter-arguments to her findings here?

Re: Israel tries to limit fallout from the Pegasus spyware scandal

#13
post #5
post #2

The genie might be out of the bottle here for them. A lot of investigative journalism now coming out (1) which shows that Pegasus is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Israeli spyware. (1) https://www.mintpressnews.com/meet-toka-the-most-dangerous-i...

That's a very questionable source. With such an overtly anti-Israel position, that's probably best taken with a large pinch of salt.

Should we take the sometimes-overtly, other-times-covertly pro-Israel position of much of the western media with a similar pinch of salt?

Re: Israel tries to limit fallout from the Pegasus spyware scandal

#14
post #5
post #2

The genie might be out of the bottle here for them. A lot of investigative journalism now coming out (1) which shows that Pegasus is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Israeli spyware. (1) https://www.mintpressnews.com/meet-toka-the-most-dangerous-i...

That's a very questionable source. With such an overtly anti-Israel position, that's probably best taken with a large pinch of salt.

I'm not familiar with the source, but can you give us a reason why one should be pro-Israel in this instance? I see nothing wrong with condemning the actions of the Israeli government, nor questioning why one of the prominent exports of the Israeli technology sector is surveillance.

I keep being contacted several times a year by established Israeli companies to add spyware into my projects. A couple of weeks ago I was offered $5000 as a sign up bonus by Bright Data (formerly Luminati), before that a growth specialist from Similarweb contacted me to gather intelligence about how to aquire Firefox for Android extensions, it was so slimy I've reported the latter to Mozilla employees.

I can't come up with a single country with such a disproportionate amount of shady companies specialized in online tracking and surveillance compared to the small population size.

Re: Israel tries to limit fallout from the Pegasus spyware scandal

#15
post #5
post #2

The genie might be out of the bottle here for them. A lot of investigative journalism now coming out (1) which shows that Pegasus is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Israeli spyware. (1) https://www.mintpressnews.com/meet-toka-the-most-dangerous-i...

That's a very questionable source. With such an overtly anti-Israel position, that's probably best taken with a large pinch of salt.

I cannot imagine how someone could possibly be pro-Israel in the specific context of cybercrime and cyberwarfare. They are literally enabling regimes to blackmail and murder innocent, good people.

Also, please provide actual counterarguments.

Re: Israel tries to limit fallout from the Pegasus spyware scandal

#16
post #2

The genie might be out of the bottle here for them. A lot of investigative journalism now coming out (1) which shows that Pegasus is really just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Israeli spyware. (1) https://www.mintpressnews.com/meet-toka-the-most-dangerous-i...

As others have mentioned, the source you're citing is at best highly questionable. The amount of leaps the article makes is just out of this world, mostly that this Israeli company has Israelis involved, and that Israelis who have experience with mathematics and computer work also serve their mandatory military service in an intelligence unit of the military rather than as foot soldiers and that an Israeli company has Israeli investors.

Israel is a tiny country the size of New Jersey, the fact that there will be overlap of people and connections between them is always the case- there's nothing nefarious about it.

Anyway, looking at the author's twitter gives one a good look into what this looks like if taken outside the context of Israel:

https://twitter.com/_whitneywebb?lang=en

She's an anti-vaxxer talking about how the "ruling class" of using COVID to gain control over the population, about hidden FBI assets, and a ton about how the anti-Defmation League, a group that collects data on antisemitism is really a massive spy network.

If it weren't so scary that people believe in it, it might be funny.

There's no reason to put any more credence in her

Re: Israel tries to limit fallout from the Pegasus spyware scandal

#17

Naftali Bennett‘s first real test. Would he actually know or have a way to find out why Macron secrets are being traded to Pegasus clients, or even reign in the spyware industry at all? Would the fragile coalition be able to handle this PM doing anything about it, or is this so far outside of their priority list that it doesn't matter and there is room for real reform?

> Would he actually know or have a way to find out why Macron secrets are being traded to Pegasus clients, or even reign in the spyware industry at all? I don’t think this would pass muster as an excuse if Israeli industry had been selling missiles to Morocco for use against France. Curious to see if it ends up being treated the same.

France and Morocco have a very close relationship, this quite equivalent since spying isn’t treated in the same way as direct hostilities.

If it was the EU would’ve fallen by now as I’ve lost a count of how many times states were caught spying on one another.

Re: Israel tries to limit fallout from the Pegasus spyware scandal

#18

Naftali Bennett‘s first real test. Would he actually know or have a way to find out why Macron secrets are being traded to Pegasus clients, or even reign in the spyware industry at all? Would the fragile coalition be able to handle this PM doing anything about it, or is this so far outside of their priority list that it doesn't matter and there is room for real reform?

> Would he actually know or have a way to find out why Macron secrets are being traded to Pegasus clients, or even reign in the spyware industry at all? I don’t think this would pass muster as an excuse if Israeli industry had been selling missiles to Morocco for use against France. Curious to see if it ends up being treated the same.

Right, the main benefit/issue is that spyware and exploits are not seen as “munitions” anywhere, and as such, escape regulation or meaningful export controls.

Re: Israel tries to limit fallout from the Pegasus spyware scandal

#19
post #14
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a very questionable source. With such an overtly anti-Israel position, that's probably best taken with a large pinch of salt.

I'm not familiar with the source, but can you give us a reason why one should be pro-Israel in this instance? I see nothing wrong with condemning the actions of the Israeli government, nor questioning why one of the prominent exports of the Israeli technology sector is surveillance. I keep being contacted several times a year by established Israeli companies to add spyware into my projects. A couple of weeks ago I wa…

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Re: Israel tries to limit fallout from the Pegasus spyware scandal

#20
What I find funny is this:

"Our clients only use the software against terrorists and criminals, so it can't be used the wrong way"

"We made sure that it doesn't work against US phone numbers".

That is straight out of "A Few Good Men":

If Colonel Jessup ordered the soldier should not be touched, and soldiers follow orders, why was the victim scheduled for a plane ride off the base?

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