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UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

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41–50 of 381 posts

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#41

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 is no constitution, bill of rights, and while there are elections in the mainland

The UK is a constitutional monarchy and does have a bill of rights.

> nominates huge numbers of Bishops to the British Parliament

It's a bit more nuanced than that. The Queen doesn't nominate anyone to Parliament, at least not in the way you're implying. Just like she has to sign a bill into law before it has any effect, she does so as a ceremonial function rather than with a critical eye which is exactly the same as with nominations like this.

To take any action but that which is recommended to her by relevant (elected) parties would result in a pretty big crisis that would ultimately see her ceremonial roles stripped.

> Many hereditary "Peers" hold title and they cannot prevent Bills from Passing but they can hold them up and amend them.

The house of lords is a pretty good check on the house of commons. Implying it's purely a thing that functions to "hold up" bills is rather incorrect.

> Britain even them claimed the mantle of "World Oldest Democracy"/ "Cradle of Democracy".

I've never seen such a thing, have you got a source?

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#42

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.

I can guarantee you that if the UK was supplying weapons to a country that was using them against its own allies, there would be an incident, and at the very least they would stop supplying them. There is no hypcrisy - yet.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#43

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.

Dude I live there, it's a green and pleasant land, especially on summer Fridays after a beer by the beach. Quite good enough for me.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#44

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.

No post body was provided.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#45
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I can guarantee you that if the UK was supplying weapons to a country that was using them against its own allies, there would be an incident, and at the very least they would stop supplying them. There is no hypcrisy - yet.

No post body was provided.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#47
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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).

Well, they certainly won’t do it again! Therefore, this should be ignored and not logically used to infer that governments spy on citizens!

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#48

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.

>since the Israeli intelligence company was supposedly "closely monitoring how their customers were using the software"

If the Israelis were going to veto a country's use of the software, it's reasonable to assume that the country was intelligent enough not to tell them what they were doing with it.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#49

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.

Quoted post unavailable.

> I really don’t feel that anyone is prepared to have a serious discussion regarding Israel, and I believe that’s mainly because…

…Israel’s intelligence finds or creates blackmail on more than enough key politicians and their staff in the western countries.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#50

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.

Expecting any honest reporting on Israel is naive. That hasn't happened for 70+ years.
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