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UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

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Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#81
post #65
post #52

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I’m sure the Sunderland lads have already clocked it. Feel free to drop by… https://www.readytogo.net/smb/

Shots fired! I had to look them up. Today I Learned about one of the earliest football paintings in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunderland_A.F.C.#/media/File:... That is pretty neat actually. I don't really follow football but I do enjoy the shit talking. This seems like a fun team to root for actually :)

I was once goaded into going to a Sunderland away game. I was somewhat surprised to hear them chanting "he s*ts where he wants" to the tune of the theme from the Addams Family.

No, I cannot explain.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#82

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:/…

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Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#83
post #74

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"Britain is not a democracy in any modern sense of the word." Demos kratos - things/doings of the people (or similar) - Old Greek. Nowadays it describes a generally agreed form of government and approach to governing. After that it gets pretty complicated - your democracy may not match mine ... I'm going to be voting for councillors soon in Somerset, along with everyone else here who can be bothered to turn out. We a…

Yours is the most honest answer, but yes, lets agree that Democracy means one person/one vote and everyone's vote is equal. The Brits have a pretty good form of government for its citizen but a one-person/one-vote-and-equal vote it is not. Similarly a country where the Majority's choice does not become President (like the US) does not qualify no matter how loudly they proclaim themselves to be the world's oldest democracy. Those folks also conveniently forget that they just got universal suffrage in 1967.

India did not invent democracy or representative assemblies and I am sure that principle occurred to many a tribe wandering the Savannah or Steppes a long time ago. There are written records of Republican assemblies dating back to ~500 BC in India.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#84
post #65
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m sure the Sunderland lads have already clocked it. Feel free to drop by… https://www.readytogo.net/smb/

Shots fired! I had to look them up. Today I Learned about one of the earliest football paintings in the world: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunderland_A.F.C.#/media/File:... That is pretty neat actually. I don't really follow football but I do enjoy the shit talking. This seems like a fun team to root for actually :)

USA chiming in here to point out that the name of the sport is pronounced "soccer".

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#85

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.

> let's also have a discussion about why this was sold to anyone who would pay with no oversight at all. There will always be cyberweapon brokers. If not NSO, then someone else. And money talks. Why would there be any oversight? What you need is plausible deniability. I’d prefer if they started selling Pegasus to absolutely anyone at all. Like, online, for $999 a month or something. Maybe then there will be actual ef…

Or perhaps the security services we pay so much for could stop hoarding vulnerabilities and start patching them. So as to add to our.. security.

Of course the problem is that these services are geared towards protecting the state, as distinct from the people. It is a distinctly unpleasant legacy of the cold war. We'll learn the hard way before there's a change of mindset.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#86
post #62

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 current home secretary, Priti Patel, was forced to resign from her previous (lesser) role as Minister for International Development for secretly (and thus illegally) meeting with Israeli diplomats. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-41923007 It is completely unsurprising that there is little care shown by our government.

[deleted]

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#87

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.

[deleted]

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#88
post #14

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:/…

> And what were GCHQ, MI6 and NCSC doing to protect our prime-minister at this time? Nobody is perfect - but there are people who blatantly ignore ITSEC best practices and are therefore almost unprotectable.

> Nobody is perfect - but there are people who blatantly ignore ITSEC best practices and are therefore almost unprotectable.

I hear you, but I would contest that they're not at liberty to ignore them. If pizza delivery drivers consent to obligations to carry issued and configured devices while on duty by what exceptionalism is Downing Street excused?

Secondly, I'd say that they may make themselves unprotectable, but that is not where their duty of care ends. Boris Johnson is not only responsible for his own security, but that of a nation. Insofar as the spooks are responsible for Boris (god help them) their pants are round their ankles again.

Re: UK Government Officials Infected with Pegasus

#89

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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.

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