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UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

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Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#31

Post by nonrandomstring »

forum_ghost wrote: post #18
nonrandomstring wrote: post #12

And what were GCHQ, MI6 and NCSC doing to protect our prime-minister at this time? We have a problem in democratic nations. I've written about it here [1]. Bruce Schneier has also addressed it in his own way. Our lack of any framework for civic cybersecurity is a disgrace. People in future ages will look back on our time as a wild-west. A solution can only come from a ground-up awareness through education. [1] http:/…

>Bruce Schneier has also addressed it in his own way. very interesting, can you link to it? tia!

Sure I guess this one [1] is fairly typical of Bruce's psoition. He identifes as (coined the phrase?) working as a "public interest technologist". He mentions this throughout his writing. I took to using the term "civic cybersecurity" and "digital self defence" after about 2014. I think we're on the same page, loosely.

[1] https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2019/02/public-inte...

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#32

Post by xiphias2 »

tomatowurst wrote: post #13

The question is then what phone exists that is immune from this? A flip phone? A Nokia 1011? I might be completely misinformed but seems like SIM card and the underlying OS is vector. What happens if I use a cell phone from late 90s and early 2000s? What is there to hack with those flip phones? JavaME over the wire? What if the cell phone dates even further? Legitimately curious what options is there. Could If you ar…

Probably PGP encryption / authentication using files on an SD card with a computer separated from internet is your best bet for secure communication. An ,,easier to use’’ version can use a firewall that only allows the PGP emails through, at least in that case the firewall can be made simple and secure.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#33

Post by dillondoyle »

xanthrax wrote: post #20
mrtksn wrote: post #7

I'm curious about the threat modelling of those high level officials. With all these hacking going on, if feels like it's not been a consideration. Pegasus claims iOS and Android hacking capabilities, one would expect more specialised communications being used at that level. Car companies provide specialised vehicles for governmental use, I would have expected to see specialised iOS or Android devices at least. Nothi…

I'm pretty sure its just accepted it is government by WhatsApp groups.

;) always a scandal. When Dems do it.. Politicians of both parties routinely use apps like wickr and signal. often illegally not following records keeping laws.

I know obama had a special blackberry made so he could use email on mobile.

I'd be surprised if the federal government hasn't created a mobile version of SIPRNet yet?

I work in politics (low level compared to these elected s). most of the committees use signal + email 2fa or similar now. But that does nothing against sate sponsored hackers with 0 days. Maybe rotating burner phones and chat platforms would work better, but probably not worth it for the vast majority unless doing something sketchy.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#34

Post by KMag »

Obviously this news is a bit embarrassing for both the UAE and the UK, but if the UK's response isn't to press the UAE for a reciprocal no-hacking treaty, then presumably the UK is trying to keep its options open. Unless I'm mistaken, the UK isn't surprised that it doesn't have any treaties with the UAE prohibiting this sort of thing... live by the hack, die by the hack.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#35

Post by nickdothutton »

KMag wrote: post #34

Obviously this news is a bit embarrassing for both the UAE and the UK, but if the UK's response isn't to press the UAE for a reciprocal no-hacking treaty, then presumably the UK is trying to keep its options open. Unless I'm mistaken, the UK isn't surprised that it doesn't have any treaties with the UAE prohibiting this sort of thing... live by the hack, die by the hack.

UK has been through a period of getting very cosy with the Qataris, which began during the Cameron era and has since (I believe) cooled a bit.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#36

Post by haltingproblem »

nonrandomstring wrote: post #12

And what were GCHQ, MI6 and NCSC doing to protect our prime-minister at this time? We have a problem in democratic nations. I've written about it here [1]. Bruce Schneier has also addressed it in his own way. Our lack of any framework for civic cybersecurity is a disgrace. People in future ages will look back on our time as a wild-west. A solution can only come from a ground-up awareness through education. [1] http:/…

No post body was provided.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#37

Post by l33tbro »

eganist wrote: post #4
Someone1234 wrote: post #2

I'm surprised this isn't a major diplomatic incident between the UK and Israel too, since the Israeli intelligence company was supposedly "closely monitoring how their customers were using the software" or akin to that. Like, yeah, blame the UAE mostly for this but let's also have a discussion about why this was sold to anyone who would pay with no oversight at all. Western countries need to do better.

Ironically, the fact that it's not playing out as a major dust-up in public will probably only further contribute to conspiratorial thinking in re: the Israeli gov't.

Israel seems to have a relative degree of immunity when it comes to subverting UK pol. Anyone ever see the investigative journalist piece of the Zionist group trying to subvert the UK Labour Party? They had a journalist go undercover for 6 months recording all kinds of things they weren't meant to:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ceCOhdgRBoc

There was only minor fallout from this incident, and I imagine it will be the same here.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#38

Post by mardifoufs »

pomian wrote: post #24
mrtksn wrote: post #7

I'm curious about the threat modelling of those high level officials. With all these hacking going on, if feels like it's not been a consideration. Pegasus claims iOS and Android hacking capabilities, one would expect more specialised communications being used at that level. Car companies provide specialised vehicles for governmental use, I would have expected to see specialised iOS or Android devices at least. Nothi…

Time to revamp the black berry.

The RCMP had access to all the encryption keys for the blackberry messaging back end :). They could basically access any message that was sent through RIM servers, and used that access pretty often (sometimes at the request of foreign governments).

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#39

Post by slickrick216 »

Someone1234 wrote: post #2

I'm surprised this isn't a major diplomatic incident between the UK and Israel too, since the Israeli intelligence company was supposedly "closely monitoring how their customers were using the software" or akin to that. Like, yeah, blame the UAE mostly for this but let's also have a discussion about why this was sold to anyone who would pay with no oversight at all. Western countries need to do better.

The UK sells weapons. Should they be blamed for anyone who is affected by them? Regardless of your own opinion they would argue no. So they can’t be hypocritical.

UAE on the other hand is a decrepit money laundering people smuggling cesspit and should face the full brunt of Iran/Russia style sanctions.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#40

Post by Veen »

haltingproblem wrote: post #36
nonrandomstring wrote: post #12

And what were GCHQ, MI6 and NCSC doing to protect our prime-minister at this time? We have a problem in democratic nations. I've written about it here [1]. Bruce Schneier has also addressed it in his own way. Our lack of any framework for civic cybersecurity is a disgrace. People in future ages will look back on our time as a wild-west. A solution can only come from a ground-up awareness through education. [1] http:/…

Quoted post unavailable.

There's so much that's factually wrong with this comment I don't know where to start. 1. The UK does have a Bill of Rights (It's different in England and Scotland). The English one pre-dates the US Bill of rights by a century[0]. 2. It does have a constitution, but not a written constitution in the American sense[1]. 3. The Queen doesn't nominate Bishops; she rubber stamps nominations by a committee who are approved by the PM. 4. The Queen does not vote in elections.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_of_Rights_1689

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_the_United_Kin...

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