U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware • Hacker News Board

Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware

#11

Post by walrus01 » Fri, Dec 03, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

I'm waiting for the day that the US declares a foreign corporation as an "enemy combatant", as they have done with foreign citizen wahabbist jihadis and US citizens such as Anwar Al-Awlaki.

Given the extent and depth of US-Israeli cooperation and ties, the precedeing theoretical is probably going to remain in the realm of theoretical.

Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware

#12

Post by starik36 » Fri, Dec 03, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

I thought the exploited holes were patched by iOS at some point. How are these phones still getting hacked?

Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware

#13

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Dec 03, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

newbamboo wrote: post #3

“ NSO says its intrusion system cannot work on phones with U.S. numbers beginning with the country code +1.” Seems like they just need to add a similar patch for apple ids for emails ending in “state.gov”. Not sure why this is such a big deal.

[deleted]

Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware

#14

Post by comrh » Fri, Dec 03, 2021, 5:30 PM UTC

boomboomsubban wrote: post #10

>In a public response, NSO has said its technology helps stop terrorism and that they've installed controls to curb spying against innocent targets. For example, NSO says its intrusion system cannot work on phones with U.S. numbers beginning with the country code +1. So the point is to stop terrorism and to do that they've immediately ruled that all Americans aren't terrorists. That doesn't seem like a good metric of…

NSO has repeatedly shown that their statements are pretty much worthless. It's just damage control. I wouldn't put any stock in the "we avoid +1 numbers" to even be real.

Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware

#15

Post by walrus01 » Fri, Dec 03, 2021, 5:31 PM UTC

newbamboo wrote: post #3

“ NSO says its intrusion system cannot work on phones with U.S. numbers beginning with the country code +1.” Seems like they just need to add a similar patch for apple ids for emails ending in “state.gov”. Not sure why this is such a big deal.

which is pretty absurd since there's only a vague relationship in the modern SS7/PSTN between a phone's DID and where it might be physically located. In five minutes of work I could have a New Zealand number ring on my desk phone anywhere in the world.

Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware

#16

Post by FredPret » Fri, Dec 03, 2021, 5:32 PM UTC

Seems like not-the-smartest move for Israel to mess with one of the few powerful entities that desires its continued existence

Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware

#17

Post by redman25 » Fri, Dec 03, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

> NSO Group said in a statement on Thursday that it did not have any indication their tools were used but canceled the relevant accounts and would investigate based on the Reuters inquiry.

Why would they cancel accounts without knowledge of wrongdoing?

Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware

#18

Post by Scoundreller » Fri, Dec 03, 2021, 5:33 PM UTC

newbamboo wrote: post #3

“ NSO says its intrusion system cannot work on phones with U.S. numbers beginning with the country code +1.” Seems like they just need to add a similar patch for apple ids for emails ending in “state.gov”. Not sure why this is such a big deal.

So it doesn’t work on US phone numbers or doesn’t work on +1 country code?

-confused Canadian because we share the +1 country code with USA under NANPA

Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware

#19

Post by notsureaboutpg » Fri, Dec 03, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

boomboomsubban wrote: post #10

>In a public response, NSO has said its technology helps stop terrorism and that they've installed controls to curb spying against innocent targets. For example, NSO says its intrusion system cannot work on phones with U.S. numbers beginning with the country code +1. So the point is to stop terrorism and to do that they've immediately ruled that all Americans aren't terrorists. That doesn't seem like a good metric of…

America (who are effectively the world police) have decided to have pretty poor metrics to determine who is a terrorist, so they set the precedent for this kind of stuff.

Random government officials in Iran cannot be considered terrorists because of a an embassy hostage situation from 50 years ago during a revolution in the country. If they can, then so can nearly every Chinese government official, every current Russian government official who was high up in the USSR, every current official in Iraq and Afghanistan, half the political leadership of Lebanon, Vietnam, etc.

Re: U.S. State Department phones hacked with Israeli company spyware

#20

Post by kshacker » Fri, Dec 03, 2021, 5:34 PM UTC

newbamboo wrote: post #3

“ NSO says its intrusion system cannot work on phones with U.S. numbers beginning with the country code +1.” Seems like they just need to add a similar patch for apple ids for emails ending in “state.gov”. Not sure why this is such a big deal.

Canadians go 'yay', finally some benefit of the big brother.

PS: I don't buy the explanation btw