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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

#51

Post by southerntofu »

tasogare wrote: post #40
pulse7 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Our clients only use the software against terrorists and criminals" => So this means that French PM Macron is a terrorist or criminal - for somebody who built this software...

Given he wasted millions years of living from the population by locking them down, heavily damaged the economy by doing so and he's now discriminating the population around a medical variable, calling him a criminal isn't that far-fetched. And before you jump on me with "it was necessary", no it wasn't, as shown by Japan, Korea and Taiwan way of dealing with the pandemic. (He also sold national strategic interests to…

I can assure you as a French person the economy is the least of our worries. Yes Macron is a criminal, but not for the reasons you say. We live in the 5th richest nation on Earth, that profits from pillaging its neocolonies all across the planet, so there is an abundance of resources to feed and house everyone if the government wanted it.

Of course the government, as any government ever, is an enemy of the people and wants to wage-enslave its population to benefit those who are already privileged.

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

#52

Post by zd123 »

emacsen wrote: post #37
jjgreen wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hamas, an internationally recognized terrorist organization Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan and the United States have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. Australia, New Zealand, Paraguay and the United Kingdom have designated only its military wing as a terrorist organization. It is not considered a terrorist organization by Brazil, China, Egypt, Iran, Norway, Qatar, Russia, Syria and Turkey. I…

They are religious extremists who believe that the entire land should be free of anyone whose religious beliefs do not match theirs and they don't mind killing innocent people, including their own people- women, children, etc. to further that goal. The fact that some countries such as Russia and Turkey won't label them as terrorists doesn't change their beliefs, nor does it change how dangerous they are not only to I…

" they don't mind killing innocent people, including their own people- women, children, etc. to further that goal."

I guess the only difference with the Israeli government is that the Israeli government manages to successfully avoid killing their own citizens.

Let's be real, they're both as bad as each other, just one side has a prettier face.

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

#53

Post by emacsen »

zd123 wrote: post #50
emacsen wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that this is probably an innocent comment on your part, but the wording of "with Palestine" implies that there are two places in a fight, one called Israel, the other called Palestine. This is a simplified explanation of why this label is not correct. Palestinians are in fact three distinct groups of people who all self-identify the same way. There are the group of people who are Israeli citizens. They used to…

Have you got a citation that Hamas is on a religious mission to "kill all non-muslims". From what I have read and understood, it's primary focus is to resist the Zionists which repeatedly encroach on Palestinian land. Imo, making a comparison to ISIS is a tad bit lazy given the historical buildup to the problems in Israel. Just because a bunch of guys have big beards and shout in Arabic doesn't really make them equiv…

> Have you got a citation that Hamas is on a religious mission to "kill all non-muslims".

Read their own literature, read Wikipedia, read any source on Hamas. This isn't a hidden agenda, this is their stated goal.

> it's primary focus is to resist the Zionists which repeatedly encroach on Palestinian land.

I addressed the issue of "Palestinian" in the previous comments. There are extreme Zionists and there are people like me who support the idea of a safe place for Jews even if we don't support the previous Israeli government- the current one is too new to have an opinion on. And we're Zionists too. I want to see peace and equality for all the people.

> Imo, making a comparison to ISIS is a tad bit lazy given the historical buildup to the problems in Israel. Just because a bunch of guys have big beards and shout in Arabic doesn't really make them equivalent in their aims.

It would be lazy if I were doing that, but I wasn't.

I was explaining their ideology, explaining why it's different than the PLO. As for have big beards- Jews have big beards too, and some of the Jews with big beards in my family speak Arabic as their native language, so what's your point?

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

#54

Post by mustafa_pasi »

zd123 wrote: post #50
emacsen wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know that this is probably an innocent comment on your part, but the wording of "with Palestine" implies that there are two places in a fight, one called Israel, the other called Palestine. This is a simplified explanation of why this label is not correct. Palestinians are in fact three distinct groups of people who all self-identify the same way. There are the group of people who are Israeli citizens. They used to…

Have you got a citation that Hamas is on a religious mission to "kill all non-muslims". From what I have read and understood, it's primary focus is to resist the Zionists which repeatedly encroach on Palestinian land. Imo, making a comparison to ISIS is a tad bit lazy given the historical buildup to the problems in Israel. Just because a bunch of guys have big beards and shout in Arabic doesn't really make them equiv…

There are Catholic priests and nuns, and some 1100 Christians in total living in Gaza which as far as I know is controlled by Hamas.

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

#55

Post by tempodox »

tester34 wrote: post #31

I do wonder whether FBI will hunt those reverse and software engineers behind those tools I do wonder how many of them are in this comment chain or previous big thread about Pegasus

If anything, the “hunting down” would be for the purpose of hiring them.

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

#56

Post by tester34 »

cbg0 wrote: post #35
tester34 wrote: post #31

I do wonder whether FBI will hunt those reverse and software engineers behind those tools I do wonder how many of them are in this comment chain or previous big thread about Pegasus

It's an Israeli company, how exactly is the FBI going to hunt down their engineers?

the same way they hunt Russian hackers

on vacations in cool places :)

src:

https://www.google.com/search?q=russian+hacker+caught+on+vac...

1

>At noon on June 28, 2012, Vladimir Drinkman, targeted as one of America’s most wanted cybercriminals, and his wife hustled into a cab pulling away from their Amsterdam hotel. They had just been tipped off that the police were on to them, but an unmarked police car blocked their getaway. The Russian was handcuffed and arrested on charges of helping to mastermind what has been called the largest criminal hacking scheme ever prosecuted in the United States.

_____________

2

>The United States has carried out a largely unheralded roundup of big Russian hackers over the last year, grabbing them on vacation in Barcelona, Prague and Greece,

______________

or great talk by Adam Haertle, but unfortunely in Polish with English subtitles avaliable

The day of cybercriminal, or how hard it is to remain an uncaught

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPIIILlIYXE

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

#57

Post by pasabagi »

noduerme wrote: post #29
emacsen wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 ha…

The really scary part is that Q nuts like this are now running the Republican party, and they have no love for Israel. The second most egregious mistake Netanyahu made, after bowing to the settlers, was staking Israel's future on an alliance with the American right. Only the four people at Commentary Magazine believe there's still a non-crazy conservative movement in the US who wouldn't turn on Israel in a heartbeat.…

Mmm, I think at the end of the day, Israel is probably the only reliable strategic partner in a resource-rich region full of basketcases. At worst, they'll have to tone it down a bit. If the US ceases to back them, they can always find a new backer.

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

#58

Post by cf499 »

Synaesthesia wrote: post #49

This spyware can install onto any iPhone or Android phone and spy on everything you do silently. It's a game changer for governments and their ability to intrude on our lives. It really vindicates everything Snowden has said on the topic.

"It really vindicates everything Snowden has said on the topic."

Did any of his statements really need vindication though? Have we not known about this forever? (e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECHELON) I suspect the real problem is, and always has been, our perceived inability to change any of it.

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

#59

Post by nindalf »

I’m not surprised that all statements from the Israeli government are filled with nothing. “We need to understand what happened” means “sorry not sorry”.

This spyware is invaluable for the Israeli government because they have something that repressive Arab regimes want. These regimes can’t be bought with money, because some of them like Saudi Arabia and UAE have plenty of money. Israel needs friends and this is a great way to start and maintain friendships - provide a way for these tinpot dictators to cement their power. Sure, some people might be annoyed they were spied on but the news cycle will move on soon, while Saudi and UAE will remain staunch allies. MBS still loves them because Khashoggi remains dead.

Israel would have gotten away with it too, if it hadn’t been for the meddling kids at Amnesty International.

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

#60

Post by dhx »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #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?

According to an old product manual[1], NSO would have most likely have been aware of whom was targeted and the content being retrieved because NSO would generally run the anonymising nodes on the Internet and seemingly insist on installing and maintaining the servers hosted at the client site where data eventually ends up. There is a note saying that customers could set this up themselves but I suspect the countries involved wouldn't have the expertise to do so. Thus to a country such as France which has been targeted, they would have to assume it is actually Israel spying on France via proxy countries. The proxy countries in return got access to spying tools they'd never be able to build themselves to spy on dissidents and rival politicians.

Per [2], US and UK officials were also targeted. Perhaps this was less commonplace though because the scheme had a greater chance of being figured out (example means: [3]) and would then give the US and UK access to the target lists of Israel and proxy countries, and the exploits used. Perhaps this is the reason 'soft targets' (countries without big ICT spying budgets) topped the target list?

[1] https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/4599753/NSO-Pegasus.p...

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/20/heads-of-sta...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upstream_collection

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