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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

#491

Post by webmaven »

kevingadd wrote: post #217
uniformlyrandom wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You do know that memory-safe languages are developed using memory-unsafe languages, and eventually execute the binary code on the actual CPU?

Most memory-safe languages I've used self-host their compiler and standard library (i.e. they're written in the language itself).

> Most memory-safe languages I've used self-host their compiler and standard library (i.e. they're written in the language itself).

Well, yes, but there is also (usually) a bootstrapping phase before a language is self-hosting, and if you're sufficiently paranoid the 'Trusting Trust' meta-vulnerability comes into play and isn't easily dismissed.

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

#493

Post by KingOfCoders »

redman25 wrote: post #17

> 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?

How do they know that their tools are not used, but know which accounts hacked the phones?

Also in other stories they have claimed they do not track who does what.

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

#494

Post by rudimental »

runarberg wrote: post #469
rudimental wrote: post #437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is America not a democracy because Canadian citizens and Mexican citizens that aren't also American citizens can't vote in elections?

Arguably, yes. Or at least USA are lacking in universal suffrage while they don’t allow long time residents to vote because they lack citizenship. This is actually a fault in quite a lot of western democracies but USA is actually worse at this the the average democracy. Contrary to most European democracies, foreign citizens are not even allowed to vote in primaries or local elections in the USA. Off course USA has m…

You bring up some reasonable points.

Argue the case. If you just did, it’s not a convincing one.

First, note I didn’t say long term residents of America. Just Canadian or Mexican citizens in general (be they long term residents of the US or not).

You may say it’s different. Maybe. Then just talk about those that aren’t long term residents.

The point here is equally true of citizens of Armenia, Vietnam, anywhere else (and I would say those that reside in America long term, or not) that aren’t US citizens. If they can’t vote in US elections, how can we consider the US a democracy?

Is democracy a binary? If so, is America one, or not one? At least is it closer to being one, or not being one?

Is democracy a spectrum? If so, where is America on the spectrum? Close to pure perfect democracy, or on the opposite end, close to the complete opposite of that? Or somewhere in the middle? You say its lacking. Where is that on the spectrum? What other countries are near it?

These types of discussion often happen around abstract, nebulous concepts like democracy, justice, good. Generally when they aren’t defined well by any participants.

If your point is the US could be more of a democracy, maybe. But even more so, it could be much less of one.

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

#495

Post by boomboomsubban »

Eelongate wrote: post #271
vorpalhex wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you think because NSO breached a few state department phones that they have the deep dirt on every sitting congress member?

You think the iceberg is coincidentally only as deep as what we've presently heard? That we didn't have the full story yesterday, but today we definitely do? Well I hope you're right, but I don't think you are.

>You think the iceberg is coincidentally only as deep as what we've presently heard?

No, but I think the US intelligence agencies are fully aware of where they're hiding the iceberg and could destroy it before it rises to the surface.

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

#497

Post by mike_d »

spiderice wrote: post #483
mike_d wrote: post #471

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well since they do the exploitation on behalf of customers, yes? NSO is very popular with governments that don't have robust domestic intelligence because all you have to do is type a phone number into a web form and in anywhere from an hour to a week you get a point and click GUI for accessing the contents of the phone.

> all you have to do is type a phone number into a web form and in anywhere from an hour to a week you get a point and click GUI for accessing the contents of the phone. You have a source for this? I genuinely want to know if they make it that simple

Publicly? No.

Should all come out in the Apple lawsuit though.

Edit: Rereading the NSO statement they said they blocked exploitation of numbers starting with +1. Take that to mean whatever you'd like.

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

#498

Post by azernik »

fabianhjr wrote: post #38
redman25 wrote: post #17

> 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?

And simultaneusly: - not have any indication their tools were used - canceled the relevant accounts Which "relevant" accounts if NSO's tools weren't used?

This is in Uganda.

NSO sells only to governments and law enforcement agencies.

Therefore, the relevant client would be the Ugandan government.

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

#499

Post by tablespoon »

sennight wrote: post #482
tablespoon wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They officially decided it was a mistake, as it did neither government any good to officially announce that it was intentional. But the sailors that were on the ship say otherwise. How would the sailors on the ship being attacked be able to know anything like that (e.g. know if the Israeli pilots thought they were attacking an Egyptian ship or an American one)?

> e.g. know if the Israeli pilots thought they were attacking an Egyptian ship or an American one The sailors would know because they have access to the same information that you do, but a greater incentive to actually do the reading. The Israeli pilots knew it as a US ship, their radio traffic questioning their attack orders - after visually identifying the USS Liberty as a US ship, was recorded and the transcripts…

> This happened several times, so unless the Israeli command center had the memory of a goldfish - they intentionally kept sending attack aircraft until they eventually got a pilot to pull the trigger. Why would they do such a thing?

To that point, it's worth noting here friendly fire incidents happen all the time in war, as well as attacks against neutral parties. For instance: the US has bombed its own troops probably more times than anyone can count, and it also bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade and shot down an Iranian airliner. Why would they do such things? Honestly, it's plausible they they may actually have had the memory of a goldfish, at least occasionally.

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

#500

Post by azernik »

redman25 wrote: post #17

> 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?

Because who else is going to be plugging Ugandan phone numbers into NSO software other than the Ugandan government?
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