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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

#251

Post by montblanc »

chucksmash wrote: post #235
montblanc wrote: post #211

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The U.S sells super sophisticated weapons such as attack drones, F-15s or nuclear submarines. The tech behind these things is probably super interesting and there's a lot of software involved. If you look at the comments here, around 90% of them don't care about the tech at all but focus on bashing Israel. This isn't a tech story.

It would certainly be a news story if someone used a U.S. built submarine to attack the U.S. State Department.

You do realize it was Ugandans who actually ordered the hack yes?

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

#252

Post by Thorncorona »

smoldesu wrote: post #237
triactual wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, we don’t.

What makes that kind of hypocrisy okay?

It seems if Israel is receiving money from the US government and Israel controls the usage of NSO group weapons that are being targeted at the American government then there are problems yea?

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

#253

Post by mcbutterbunz »

cwkoss wrote: post #228
throaway46546 wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine all the dirt the NSA has on congress.

Imagine how much society would improve if all the dirt got aired. Hiding this information is trading the wellbeing of the country for the NSA's own internal goals and power.

> Imagine how much society would improve if all the dirt got aired.

Depends on the dirt. Some of it might be private and personal stuff, such as infidelity. That type of stuff, while blackmailable, doesn't really benefit the public much.

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

#254

Post by smoldesu »

Thorncorona wrote: post #252
smoldesu wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes that kind of hypocrisy okay?

It seems if Israel is receiving money from the US government and Israel controls the usage of NSO group weapons that are being targeted at the American government then there are problems yea?

It's a catch-22. Telling other countries not to spy on us while we happily spy on others is a double standard.

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

#255

Post by trasz »

FDSGSG wrote: post #166
loeg wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US provides substantial financial, military, and political aid to Israel, that it does not provide to Germany.

There are currently around 35000 American service members deployed to Germany.

That's Germany providing its land, for free, to the US. Those forces are not protecting Germany from any existing military danger, they are just projecting US power and protecting its interests.

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

#256

Post by fmajid »

BrianOnHN wrote: post #241
fmajid wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What's the consequence for destabilizing governments worldwide? Logistics headaches? Got it.

The NSO guys are in it purely for the money. IIRC there was a deal on the cards for some investors to buy the company that fell apart because of the sanctions, so the NSO founders can no longer cash out.

As for destabilizing governments, they are doing the opposite, they are helping authoritarian governments worldwide crack down on journalists and dissidents, or murder them in the case of Saudi Arabia and Jamal Khashoggi. Reportedly, after the Khashoggi murder, NSO yanked the Saudi account but was forced to reinstate it by Netanyahu who was pursuing diplomatic relations with them.

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

#257

Post by ruined »

throaway46546 wrote: post #209
linschn wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe stop funding them, for a start? Congressional oversight used to be a thing. Snowden showed the NSA lied to congress. No heads rolled.

Imagine all the dirt the NSA has on congress.

remember when the cia interfered with the congressional investigation of their torture program, by getting the FBI to investigate senators for viewing the documents that the CIA provided them, and spying on the senate investigation activities, and then nothing happened

https://www.cnn.com/2014/03/18/politics/cia-senate-dispute-f...

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cia-senate-idUSKBN0KN2Q82...

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

#258

Post by md_ »

bjourne wrote: post #172
md_ wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NSO's PE investors are big-time American and British funds. Just sayin'.

According to Wikipedia, NSO is owned by by its two founders Omri Lavie and Shalev Hulio and Novalpina Capital. According to Sky News Novalpina Capital is getting liquidated and their stake in NSO will be sold to a third party: https://news.sky.com/story/pegasus-spyware-owner-novalpina-t...

Right. I can’t tell if you’re agreeing with me or not. :)

Prior to Novalpina, it was Francisco Partners.

Point being, NSO has received huge amounts of money from the kind of people who, well, YCombinator founders seek out.

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

#259

Post by trasz »

montblanc wrote: post #73
loeg wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US provides substantial financial, military, and political aid to Israel, that it does not provide to Germany.

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…

There is no military danger Europe would need protecting from. The only thing US is subsidising is itself: all those trillions go directly back to US and benefit US, not Europe.

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

#260

Post by mullingitover »

montblanc wrote: post #197
mullingitover wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The attacks on NATO are such a weird thing. US support of NATO isn't a charity operation, there are strategic and economic benefits to the US from NATO participation that greatly exceed the expenses. If the argument is that the United States shouldn't be a global power, that it should dismantle the US military and be a demure, multilateral player in the international space, sure, attack NATO. However, attacking NATO…

I'm not attacking NATO. I'm saying the U.S is subsidizing Europe's defense in the trillions (if we count since WW2 end). It could be beneficial to the U.S, or not. I'm only saying U.S aid to Israel is not unique and is peanuts compared to the NATO subsidy. People here like saying they are super focused on Israel because of the 3 billion annual subsidy the U.S gives to Israel. I call bullshit on that.

The NATO relationship effectively turns Europe into vassal states - we don't have German or French bases on US soil, only the US gets that out of NATO. So it's a 'subsidy' only in the sense that the US is protecting its property.

People get angry about the Israel aid not because of the volume of funding, but because of the human rights/colonialism problems that the US subsidizes. I personally feel that way, but at the same time I understand the realpolitik deal with Israel - I believe the purpose of keeping Israel there is to prevent some version of the Ottoman Empire from re-forming.

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