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Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

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Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#21

Post by throw8932894 »

supernova87a wrote: post #18

Although I'm certainly no celebrity / important likely target of hackers, I'm interested in this just because recently I've gotten paranoid about my financial accounts (after a company I used to work for finally went public and I was fortunate to cash out an amount of $). When hackers use such exploits, do they then basically have something like remote control over your phone, and can start exfiltrating data / manipu…

Someone who has access to Pegasus is not going after finances. I had modest amount of ethereum on my PC, was hacked, but I still had control over my wallet.

If you have $1M+ it should not be tied to your sim card, GMail account etc... If you use the same device to access your bank accounts, and to browse internet or receive messages, you are like an idiot who does not do backups!

Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#22

Post by sgjohnson »

polack wrote: post #7
tiku wrote: post #2

How does it get installed? I'm imagining some spy stealing the phone and installing it.

Contrary to popular belief, iPhones and Android phones have really poor security and new exploits are discovered all the time. So a properly formatted text message is all that's required these days. It's like in the dotcom days when 90% of the web was open to SQL injection.

It’s not at all like in the dotcom days. Unlike SQL injections, these aren’t low skill attacks that can be mounted by skiddies.

Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#23

Post by octoberfranklin »

When are governments going to finally realize that voice calls, text, and maybe plaintext email are enough for work phones?

Is playing Candy Crush on your work phone really a mission-critical cyberpriority?

All the high-security executive/legislative people (at least in the US) have two phones: the personal phone and the work phone. Whoever made the decision for the work phones to be "smart" needs to be fired. The old dumb Blackberries could easily be resurrected if a government-sized buyer committed to a purchase.

Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#25

Post by sgjohnson »

dandanua wrote: post #14
polack wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Contrary to popular belief, iPhones and Android phones have really poor security and new exploits are discovered all the time. So a properly formatted text message is all that's required these days. It's like in the dotcom days when 90% of the web was open to SQL injection.

Meanwhile, they take 30% cut from developers and force everyone to buy a new phone every year. Microsoft monopolization of Windows is a child play in comparison to this phone racket.

Nobody is forcing anyone to buy a new phone every year.

iPhone 5S, released more than 8 years ago, is still getting updates.

Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#26

Post by markdown »

throw8932894 wrote: post #21
supernova87a wrote: post #18

Although I'm certainly no celebrity / important likely target of hackers, I'm interested in this just because recently I've gotten paranoid about my financial accounts (after a company I used to work for finally went public and I was fortunate to cash out an amount of $). When hackers use such exploits, do they then basically have something like remote control over your phone, and can start exfiltrating data / manipu…

Someone who has access to Pegasus is not going after finances. I had modest amount of ethereum on my PC, was hacked, but I still had control over my wallet. If you have $1M+ it should not be tied to your sim card, GMail account etc... If you use the same device to access your bank accounts, and to browse internet or receive messages, you are like an idiot who does not do backups!

> If you use the same device to access your bank accounts, and to browse internet or receive messages, you are like an idiot who does not do backups!

Using ones phone for banking, internet, and sms is completely normal. Saying that 99.9999999999999999% of the world population that owns smartphones is an idiot isn't helpful.

The idiots are the governments of the world that haven't sanctioned Israel for allowing the continued trade of these cyberweapons by their citizens.

Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#27

Post by closewith »

throw8932894 wrote: post #21
supernova87a wrote: post #18

Although I'm certainly no celebrity / important likely target of hackers, I'm interested in this just because recently I've gotten paranoid about my financial accounts (after a company I used to work for finally went public and I was fortunate to cash out an amount of $). When hackers use such exploits, do they then basically have something like remote control over your phone, and can start exfiltrating data / manipu…

Someone who has access to Pegasus is not going after finances. I had modest amount of ethereum on my PC, was hacked, but I still had control over my wallet. If you have $1M+ it should not be tied to your sim card, GMail account etc... If you use the same device to access your bank accounts, and to browse internet or receive messages, you are like an idiot who does not do backups!

In that case, the majority of the people in the world with more than $1MM are idiots.

Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#28

Post by hadrien01 »

hericium wrote: post #16
lgvln wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very interesting proposition. Israel, directly or indirectly, has a very significant influence in the US and I doubt this will ever happen. Edit: Typed “never“ instead of “ever”

Quoted post unavailable.

That comment was made by someone else, and is not a parent comment to the one you're answering to.

Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#29

Post by arghwhat »

markdown wrote: post #26
throw8932894 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone who has access to Pegasus is not going after finances. I had modest amount of ethereum on my PC, was hacked, but I still had control over my wallet. If you have $1M+ it should not be tied to your sim card, GMail account etc... If you use the same device to access your bank accounts, and to browse internet or receive messages, you are like an idiot who does not do backups!

> If you use the same device to access your bank accounts, and to browse internet or receive messages, you are like an idiot who does not do backups! Using ones phone for banking, internet, and sms is completely normal. Saying that 99.9999999999999999% of the world population that owns smartphones is an idiot isn't helpful. The idiots are the governments of the world that haven't sanctioned Israel for allowing the co…

"99.9999999999999999%" of the world are not high-value targets with > $1M USD in assets.

> The idiots are the governments of the world that haven't sanctioned Israel

Sanctions against Israel are not going to make vulnerabilities and risks go away. It will just make life harder for a single provider.

Re: Finnish diplomats’ phones infected with NSO Group Pegasus spyware

#30

Post by throw8932894 »

markdown wrote: post #26
throw8932894 wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone who has access to Pegasus is not going after finances. I had modest amount of ethereum on my PC, was hacked, but I still had control over my wallet. If you have $1M+ it should not be tied to your sim card, GMail account etc... If you use the same device to access your bank accounts, and to browse internet or receive messages, you are like an idiot who does not do backups!

> If you use the same device to access your bank accounts, and to browse internet or receive messages, you are like an idiot who does not do backups! Using ones phone for banking, internet, and sms is completely normal. Saying that 99.9999999999999999% of the world population that owns smartphones is an idiot isn't helpful. The idiots are the governments of the world that haven't sanctioned Israel for allowing the co…

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