The secret Uganda deal that has brought NSO to the brink of collapse
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Re: The secret Uganda deal that has brought NSO to the brink of collapse
#2https://archive.md/At4rC
> In February 2019, an Israeli woman sat across from the son of Uganda’s president, and made an audacious pitch — would he want to secretly hack any phone in the world? [ ... ] for NSO, the Israeli company that created Pegasus, this dalliance into east Africa would prove to be the moment it crossed a red line, infuriating US diplomats and triggering a chain of events that would see it blacklisted by the commerce department, pursued by Apple, and driven to the verge of defaulting on its loans, according to interviews with US and Israeli officials, industry insiders and NSO employees.
Looks like Uganda tried to hack 11 US diplomats, which ended up giving away the game, and getting everyone upset — and for but a pittance in revenue.
Re: The secret Uganda deal that has brought NSO to the brink of collapse
#3This is an interesting industry.
> “We always knew this thing had an expiration date,” he told the friend, complaining that some clients had asked to shift their contracts to lesser-known rivals, according to a person familiar with the conversation.
I guess if you have this perspective, you want to maximize revenues and IPO before your product gets misused and invites US sanctions.
I wonder what the reaction would be if this was a US company and not an Israeli one. Apple would still sue them, of course. But they couldn't be sanctioned by USG, right?
Re: The secret Uganda deal that has brought NSO to the brink of collapse
#4Which is odd because NSO made many assurances to the US govt they were in control of the tech and that US nationals were not to be included. Looks like they weren't in as much control as they stated they were.
Re: The secret Uganda deal that has brought NSO to the brink of collapse
#5This is an interesting industry. > “We always knew this thing had an expiration date,” he told the friend, complaining that some clients had asked to shift their contracts to lesser-known rivals, according to a person familiar with the conversation. I guess if you have this perspective, you want to maximize revenues and IPO before your product gets misused and invites US sanctions. I wonder what the reaction would be…
> I wonder what the reaction would be if this was a US company and not an Israeli one.
For hacking into a US official's phone without a warrant? They would go to jail.
Re: The secret Uganda deal that has brought NSO to the brink of collapse
#6Which is odd because NSO made many assurances to the US govt they were in control of the tech and that US nationals were not to be included. Looks like they weren't in as much control as they stated they were.
Yeah, it looks like they used a pretty basic whitelist:
> In this case, all 11 targets were using Ugandan numbers, but had Apple logins using their state department emails, according to the two US officials.
Re: The secret Uganda deal that has brought NSO to the brink of collapse
#7This is an interesting industry. > “We always knew this thing had an expiration date,” he told the friend, complaining that some clients had asked to shift their contracts to lesser-known rivals, according to a person familiar with the conversation. I guess if you have this perspective, you want to maximize revenues and IPO before your product gets misused and invites US sanctions. I wonder what the reaction would be…
> I guess if you have this perspective, you want to maximize revenues and IPO
Why would you IPO this business? Disclosures associated with the IPO might accelerate the expiration date, you don't need the capital, and IPOs cost real money, which you could instead move into your own pockets. What does it bring — besides lowkey defrauding investors, who don't know what they're getting theirselves into, so they can be left with a worthless business at the end of the game?
Re: The secret Uganda deal that has brought NSO to the brink of collapse
#8This is an interesting industry. > “We always knew this thing had an expiration date,” he told the friend, complaining that some clients had asked to shift their contracts to lesser-known rivals, according to a person familiar with the conversation. I guess if you have this perspective, you want to maximize revenues and IPO before your product gets misused and invites US sanctions. I wonder what the reaction would be…
What would happen if it was a US company? Probably they would be forbidden from selling anything outside of the US. Remember what the US did with crypto exports for decades? Next, if you tried to investigate anything that it was doing, you would be persecuted relentlessly by the US government. Note what happened to Julian Assange. It really is not like the US government is a nice organization or anything.
Re: The secret Uganda deal that has brought NSO to the brink of collapse
#9Which is odd because NSO made many assurances to the US govt they were in control of the tech and that US nationals were not to be included. Looks like they weren't in as much control as they stated they were.
Is that sarcasm? The Israelis spying on the us is hardly anything new
Re: The secret Uganda deal that has brought NSO to the brink of collapse
#10Which is odd because NSO made many assurances to the US govt they were in control of the tech and that US nationals were not to be included. Looks like they weren't in as much control as they stated they were.
Naturally, NSO will be blamed instead of the US govt for thinking that was actually possible. Especially after the shadow brokers leak.