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NYT journalist hacked with Pegasus after reporting on previous hacking attempts

citizenlab.ca

71–80 of 330 posts

Re: NYT journalist hacked with Pegasus after reporting on previous hacking attempts

#71

So how do we protect our privacy from the advance of technology? It doesn't seem possible. Just going after NSO is useless.

It depends on what your threat model is. If its individuals, local law enforcement, or even national law enforcement (context dependent) you are trying to hide from, you can obtain phones with cash and make it very difficult to link them to you (use a sim card bought with cash and never give out that number, use a VOIP service for your primary number, use an OS that doesn't send back much telemetry, turn off location…

Any phone's location and call history will effectively identify it.

Location can be determine with sufficient accuracy for this purpose from cell-tower connections. More so as 5G, with its greater tower density and shorter range, is rolled out.

(An actual 5G threat you can get behind.)

Re: NYT journalist hacked with Pegasus after reporting on previous hacking attempts

#72
post #12

It would seem to be the rational thing for NSO to hack a journalist who is writing on them, so that they better prepare for what’s coming. As for all the countries that buy and use NSO, to target and kill journalists, they are all close all allies of the US and Israel. And the US and England were also spying on the journalist Julian Assange, and have kept him in prison and tortured him for over a decade. Ben Hubbard…

He was arrested in 2019 so your “over a decade” claim is demonstrably wrong. Could you point to amnesty international claiming belmarsh is torture?

His confinement to the Embassy of Equador since 2010 amply qualify as both imprisonment and torture [0]. If you like to argue that it does not literally qualify then I suggest you don't in the interest of not wasting everybody's time.

[0] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-48473898

Re: NYT journalist hacked with Pegasus after reporting on previous hacking attempts

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't get behind bifurcation of job market based on what political side you belong to. This seems destructive at best, dangerous at worse. It's like the classic Palantir vs Google argument. I won't hire anyone if they show any sort of activism at work.

Is “not wanting to work with surveillance” an example of a political opinion from the left, or from the right? It kinda just seems like a personal preference.

It’s entirely apolitical. I view it as entirely identical to a refusing to hire anyone who had been a chemist at a tobacco company.

Re: NYT journalist hacked with Pegasus after reporting on previous hacking attempts

#74
post #62
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> (I assume it is illegal in America, but how about Israel?) This part doesn't matter much in practicality. Like it is illegal for the US gov't to spy on their citizens. It is illegal for the UK to spy on their citizens. So the NSA made a deal with the UK. They spy on us, we spy on them, and exchange the info. There, the US didn't break the law and neither did the UK. They worked around it. We live in a shadowy world…

> Like it is illegal for the US gov't to spy on their citizens. It is illegal for the UK to spy on their citizens. So the NSA made a deal with the UK. They spy on us, we spy on them, and exchange the info. There, the US didn't break the law and neither did the UK. Let’s not mince words, this is officials of the United States of America conspiring with foreign hostile [0] powers to undermine the rights and security of…

But then we'd have to get into other messy things like the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley bypassing the president's constitutional executive authorities ability to launch a nuclear attack. Of course it's framed as him saving humanity, but at it's core you had a treasonous act.

> Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley took steps to prevent then-President Donald Trump from misusing the country's nuclear arsenal during the last month of his presidency, according to a new book by The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Robert Costa obtained by NBC News.

> The book, set to be released Sept. 21, also recounted a phone conversation Milley had with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the Jan. 6 violence at the Capitol, which Pelosi blamed on an "unhinged" Trump. Pelosi said in January that she spoke to Milley about "preventing an unstable president from initiating military hostilities or accessing the launch codes and ordering a nuclear strike."

> "I can guarantee you, you can take it to the bank, that there'll be, that the nuclear triggers are secure and we're not going to do — we're not going to allow anything crazy, illegal, immoral or unethical to happen," Milley told her, according to a transcript of the call obtained by the authors.

> "The president alone can order the use of nuclear weapons. But he doesn't make the decision alone. One person can order it, several people have to launch it," he said later in the conversation.

> After the call, Milley summoned senior officers from the National Military Command Center to go over the procedures for launching nuclear weapons, the book said. He told the officers that if they got a call, "you do the procedure. You do the process. And I'm part of that procedure," he said — making sure he was in the loop on any planned military actions, the book said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/milley-acted-prevent-t...

There is no constitution. Take the politics out of it. This is treason.

Re: NYT journalist hacked with Pegasus after reporting on previous hacking attempts

#75
post #74
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Like it is illegal for the US gov't to spy on their citizens. It is illegal for the UK to spy on their citizens. So the NSA made a deal with the UK. They spy on us, we spy on them, and exchange the info. There, the US didn't break the law and neither did the UK. Let’s not mince words, this is officials of the United States of America conspiring with foreign hostile [0] powers to undermine the rights and security of…

But then we'd have to get into other messy things like the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley bypassing the president's constitutional executive authorities ability to launch a nuclear attack. Of course it's framed as him saving humanity, but at it's core you had a treasonous act. > Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley took steps to prevent then-President Donald Trump from misusing the…

The lines are a bit blurrier here than you might think. Soldiers are required to disobey illegal orders. Congress declares war. But the President has the right to respond militarily in an emergency - war does not wait on committees. If Trump had said that e.g. NK had attacked, and ordered that NK be nuked, but NK had not actually attacked (i.e. there was not actually an emergency), that would have been an illegal order, which soldiers would have been legally bound to disobey.

It would be treason for Milley to countermand a legal order, but asking for key servicemen to review the details of an admittedly complicated bit of military law and to prepare themselves for exactly what decision they might need to make in realtime - nothing illegal about that.

Re: NYT journalist hacked with Pegasus after reporting on previous hacking attempts

#76
post #22

Forget Y Combinator -- come build the next great surveillance start-up at the IDF's Unit 8200, the world's greatest hacker school and incubator for mass surveillance start-ups. With generous subsidies from US taxpayers, Unit 8200 lets you level up your surveillance game by practicing on 4.5 million Palestinian beta-testers. (Go nuts, it's not like they can sue you!) Plus, say goodbye to those moral qualms -- at 8200,…

Unit 8200 gets no money from U.S. Taxpayers.

Re: NYT journalist hacked with Pegasus after reporting on previous hacking attempts

#77
post #12

It would seem to be the rational thing for NSO to hack a journalist who is writing on them, so that they better prepare for what’s coming. As for all the countries that buy and use NSO, to target and kill journalists, they are all close all allies of the US and Israel. And the US and England were also spying on the journalist Julian Assange, and have kept him in prison and tortured him for over a decade. Ben Hubbard…

So, any end justifies every means ?

Re: NYT journalist hacked with Pegasus after reporting on previous hacking attempts

#78
post #12

It would seem to be the rational thing for NSO to hack a journalist who is writing on them, so that they better prepare for what’s coming. As for all the countries that buy and use NSO, to target and kill journalists, they are all close all allies of the US and Israel. And the US and England were also spying on the journalist Julian Assange, and have kept him in prison and tortured him for over a decade. Ben Hubbard…

So, any end justifies every means ?

I don't think the comment you're replying to is talking about justification or justice, just rationality.

If I say "Your bike lock doesn't have to be unbreakable, it just has to be strong enough that a rational thief will look for another target," that doesn't mean I think the thief is justified in stealing other people's bikes instead of yours.

Re: NYT journalist hacked with Pegasus after reporting on previous hacking attempts

#79
post #12

It would seem to be the rational thing for NSO to hack a journalist who is writing on them, so that they better prepare for what’s coming. As for all the countries that buy and use NSO, to target and kill journalists, they are all close all allies of the US and Israel. And the US and England were also spying on the journalist Julian Assange, and have kept him in prison and tortured him for over a decade. Ben Hubbard…

He was arrested in 2019 so your “over a decade” claim is demonstrably wrong. Could you point to amnesty international claiming belmarsh is torture?

Amnesty International is a mouthpiece for the UK/US governments on so many subjects including Syria and Chevron. They even famously withdrew their "support" for Steven DOnzinger who was prosecuted by Chevron for exposing their environmental damages in Latin America.

It is a tainted and biased source. Use it as a source at your own peril.

Re: NYT journalist hacked with Pegasus after reporting on previous hacking attempts

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He was arrested in 2019 so your “over a decade” claim is demonstrably wrong. Could you point to amnesty international claiming belmarsh is torture?

His confinement to the Embassy of Equador since 2010 amply qualify as both imprisonment and torture [0]. If you like to argue that it does not literally qualify then I suggest you don't in the interest of not wasting everybody's time. [0] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-48473898

I'll take that argument on - he was charged by the Swedish Prosecution Authority, extradition was agreed by the UK authorities and he sought sanctuary in the Ecudorian embassy which granted him sanctury.

So which of these imprisoned him? Presumably not Ecuador. The UK for agreeing to extradict him? Sweden? Similarly - what who was the perpetrator of the torture? Ecuador for not offering sufficiently spacious accomodation in the embassy?

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