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

reuters.com

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

#151

Post by ryneandal »

Tronno wrote: post #83
montblanc wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Israel is ostensibly a Western ally, yet they sell weapons that are used to attack Western nations and their citizens. Can you see why some people might consider that a problem? Your accusations of anti-semitism are unwelcome and without merit.

There are also numerous instances of their intelligence forces spying on us, an ally.

- https://apnews.com/article/israel-jonathan-pollard-espionage... - https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/12/israel-white-house...

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

#153

Post by bjourne »

motohagiography wrote: post #125

Arguably, this is the real use case Pegasus was designed for. A government (Uganda) that does not have a large and mature civil service that would support a G7 level technical domestic intelligence agency went to market for the tools of one (NSO), so they can keep tabs on foreign intelligence agents (state department staff) in their country. I am not a fan of NSO at all, but this case sounds like they're providing so…

The "oh, but everyone is doing it!" argument. I don't for a second believe that other countries install spyware on foreign diplomats and other peoples phones. What NSO and the Israeli government is doing is rotten to the core and unless you have evidence of the contrary you cannot assert that other actors are doing the same thing.

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

#154

Post by eecc »

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?

Nope, that’s a bad analogy. A manufacturer that produces and sells thousands if not millions of items won’t be deemed as complicit as one building a nuke that somehow lands in your enemies’ lap.

That’s pretty obvious and it’s disingenuous that you’re trying to steer the conversation in that direction

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

#156

Post by fmajid »

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.

That's pretty much what they did with NSO, which is getting the Huawei treatment:

https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/03/us_sanctions_spyware/

reportedly, this has created havoc on NSO, since for instance none of the cloud providers can sell services to them to host their zero-days, among other logistics headaches. Their recently hired CEO resigned.

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

#157

Post by lostlogin »

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.

> I'm waiting for the day that the US declares a foreign corporation as an "enemy combatant"

It’s particularly interesting to watch as the company is based in a country that is a very close ally.

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

#158

Post by Sporktacular »

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?

Speak plainly. Are you suggesting this is a company being unfairly singled out just because it's Israeli?

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

#159

Post by fmajid »

elliekelly wrote: post #110
SavantIdiot wrote: post #53

Slapping down the NSO doesn't fix the problem. We should be glad we even know that their software exists, imagine if it was completely hidden from the public? The problem is that Apple needs to fix this. Security is an arms race, and the more visibility we have into where it is weak, the better for everyone. To paraphrase the motorcycle repair episode of Winter Steele, "You are stronger now for having been fixed." IM…

I don't think most Apple customers know or care so despite being ostensibly "privacy focused" Apple doesn't have much of an incentive to take action.

Apple has demonstrated complacency on security issues. Stiffing security researchers on bug bounties is just one symptom, but so is the fact the market price for iOS exploits has cratered compared to Android ones.

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

#160

Post by jimbob45 »

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?

I'm in agreement with you. I don't see any indication that the Israelis specifically made this weapon to target US interests, nor do I see any indication that the Israelis are discriminating between the US and any other nation, nor do I see anything that leads me to believe that we aren't potentially using this ourselves against other nations.

Fuck NSO, for sure. But I'm just not sure Israel should be held accountable for the actions of a private corporation with no apparent political motivations, just as in your M-16 example.

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