Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 651 posts

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

#91

Post by drusepth »

walrus01 wrote: post #11

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.

Didn't they get pretty close with Huawei when the previous president issued an executive order in response to state spying fears that:

* banned the sale of any of their phones or networking products in the US

* banned US companies selling product to Huawei

* cut funding to wireless carriers using Huawei equipment

...and then pressured allied countries to do the same?

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

#92

Post by [deleted] »

montblanc wrote: post #61
walrus01 wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's my understanding that NSO runs centralized command and control servers that their "clients" are granted access to, for both the on-device payload installation and also data exfiltration. They do not give the software to their clients to go use somewhere in the world fully independently (self hosted payload dropper, C&C, etc) They're a direct participant in the network traffic. Unlike a dumb purely offline piece…

So selling an F-15 to the Saudis (like the U.S is doing in droves) is more morally justifable because what exactly..? After the plane is sold the Saudis are independent with it? (they aren't really btw. I'm sure there's maintenance and buying parts etc).

[deleted]

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

#93

Post by JumpCrisscross »

Apofis wrote: post #82
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> State Department tells the CIA what to do Your broader point is correct, but no, it doesn't. The CIA is an independent agency [1]. It reports to the DNI [2]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independent_agencies_of_the_Un... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Director_of_National_Intellige...

Yes, but who dictates where and how they can play overseas?

> who dictates where and how they can play overseas?

The Director and Deputy Director of the CIA.

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

#94

Post by bauruine »

boomboomsubban wrote: post #75
gowld wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there another popular spyware company being used by rogue states to perform terrorist attacks?

DarkMatter seems to have done basically the same as NSO, except with an even more explicit US connection.

> DarkMatter is under investigation by the F.B.I. for crimes including digital espionage services, involvement in the Jamal Khashoggi assassination, and incarceration of foreign dissidents.[28] The F.B.I. is also investigating current and former American employees of DarkMatter for possible cybercrimes.

Doesn't look like they only target Israeli companies.

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

#95

Post by octopoc »

maltalex wrote: post #46

I don't understand the focus on NSO in these stories. If U.S State Department personnel in Uganda were shot from an M-16, would the headline mention "an American arms manufacturer"? No, because it's ridiculous. For better or worse, NSO's product is a weapon. How is it any different from an M-16? Where is the outrage towards the people who used this weapon against the State Department?

Unlike an M-16, hacks can be conducted remotely, they can be used to plant evidence, conduct blackmail, and lots of other things where most people would never know a hack was involved.

Also, there's outrage towards NSO because Israel is supposedly an American ally. Israel needs American support, and yet Israel freely allows Israeli corporations to sell services American enemies. And this isn't an isolated company--there are other Israeli hacking companies that target Americans, such as Black Cube.

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

#96

Post by the_only_law »

Apofis wrote: post #59
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…

These people are in for a world of hurt, the State Department tells the CIA what to do.

Heh, that showdown sounds like it would make for a hell of a book decades later.

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

#97

Post by montblanc »

whimsicalism wrote: post #89
montblanc wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The U.S basically protects the whole of Europe by subsidizing NATO. It's probably in the trillions. Sorry but Trump had a point there. What it gives Israel is peanuts compared to that. Without U.S support to Europe who knows what happens, maybe the Russians and Chinese start looking at Europe as easy prey to pick on. Also the obsession with Israel isn't a uniquely American thing, it's the same in France and Canada an…

Only if you count general American military spending as supporting Germany more than Israel? Otherwise, US absolutely provides far more military spending to Israel than to Germany, it's not really comparable.

> Only if you count general American military spending

Of course I do. Europe has no real army. France kinda has an army and the U.K got out. If America didn't provide a military umbrella Europe would need to actually build a real army (Europe's contributions to NATO are pitiful). How much would it cost the Europeans to do that? Going back since WW2 that's easily in the trillions.

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

#98

Post by user-the-name »

maltalex wrote: post #46

I don't understand the focus on NSO in these stories. If U.S State Department personnel in Uganda were shot from an M-16, would the headline mention "an American arms manufacturer"? No, because it's ridiculous. For better or worse, NSO's product is a weapon. How is it any different from an M-16? Where is the outrage towards the people who used this weapon against the State Department?

> No, because it's ridiculous.

Is it really.

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

#99

Post by discreditable »

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…

Funny enough this reminds me of the ransomware that doesn't work if a cyrillic keyboard is installed. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/05/try-this-one-weird-trick...

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

#100

Post by madars »

smnrchrds wrote: post #39
s_dev wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I just have to buy a US phone to evade detection from NSO? And why didn't that logic work for US State Dept phones? I'm honestly of the opinion there is nothing that NSO can say that isn't outright lying. This isn't a normal company in anyway.

I remember reading that some Russian (private sector) computer viruses did not attack computers whose language and locale were set to Russia. It's never about ethics. It's always about making as much money as possible without pissing off powerful people and entities.

Yep, Krebs on Security wrote "Try This One Weird Trick Russian Hackers Hate" -- https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/05/try-this-one-weird-trick...
Post reply on HN