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US judge finds NSO Group liable for hacking journalists via WhatsApp

reuters.com

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Re: US judge finds NSO Group liable for hacking journalists via WhatsApp

#131

Post by tptacek »

bigfatkitten wrote: post #125
ThinkBeat wrote: post #123

It is hard to believe that NSO group is allowed to operate. They sell technology to horrible places, they cause death torture, and a host of less horrible things. Yet they are protected by the US and Israel, which I believe is the case that they have backdoors into all of it, and getting the targets to actually install this malware on their own saves a lot time. All good, except for the actual real world victims.

> It is hard to believe that NSO group is allowed to operate. They sell technology to horrible places, they cause death torture, and a host of less horrible things. That describes the entire Israeli defence industry, and a fair sized portion of Israel's cybersecurity industry, based on the stomach-churning sales pitches I've received. NSO are not unique, they just got unlucky.

It describes the entire defense industry, and a fair sized portion of the cybersecurity industry, full stop.

Re: US judge finds NSO Group liable for hacking journalists via WhatsApp

#132

Post by tptacek »

tokioyoyo wrote: post #127
CamelCaseName wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm quite surprised by the corporate history section. Specifically, NSO Group is worth a lot less than I thought it was, even at its peak. ($1B+ valuation) Also, the amount of infighting is... Surprising perhaps? Less surprising is the number of spinoffs out of it, and the number of competing Israeli spyware groups. I'm constantly surprised by how good he Israeli startup environment seems to be. Why is this? How are…

Valuations don’t really matter in their playing field. It’s more about power and politics, rather than raw numbers.

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Re: US judge finds NSO Group liable for hacking journalists via WhatsApp

#133

Post by tptacek »

sweeter wrote: post #128

Darknet Diaries did a few podcast episodes on the NSO group from the perspective of people who have directly interacted with or have been the target and it really puts it into perspective how horrific they are. They operate under the protection of the US and are directly allowed to spy on US citizens without any recourse whatsoever. One particularly grotesque case was the illegal wire tapping of Ben Suda after launch…

The US hosts and protects firms that are better at this than NSO, and not just because they're smart enough not to be in the news.

Re: US judge finds NSO Group liable for hacking journalists via WhatsApp

#134

Post by squarefoot »

talldayo wrote: post #50
lifestyleguru wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should journalist badge provide some kind of protection shield? [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Gonz%C3%A1lez_Yag%C3%BCe

In Israel's opinion? It shouldn't: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_... Israeli forces killed 38x more journalists than Hamas did on October 7th.

Also by now the number of people killed in Gaza by Netanyahu is very close to the number of Ukrainian people killed by Putin. Did anyone suggest sanctions against Israel for that genocide? Nope, they enjoy their full immunity and keep going forward with a massacre that has the same exact motivation as the Russian invasion: rob other people of their territory and resources. Two war criminals, two rogue terrorist states, yet two completely different weights.

Re: US judge finds NSO Group liable for hacking journalists via WhatsApp

#135

Post by gerash »

ThinkBeat wrote: post #123

It is hard to believe that NSO group is allowed to operate. They sell technology to horrible places, they cause death torture, and a host of less horrible things. Yet they are protected by the US and Israel, which I believe is the case that they have backdoors into all of it, and getting the targets to actually install this malware on their own saves a lot time. All good, except for the actual real world victims.

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Re: US judge finds NSO Group liable for hacking journalists via WhatsApp

#136

Post by ls612 »

tptacek wrote: post #129
4ad wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, so? What is your point?

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Usually zero days being used in the wild get found and analyzed. Who else is making exploit packages like this other than state actors?

Re: US judge finds NSO Group liable for hacking journalists via WhatsApp

#137

Post by prpl »

tptacek wrote: post #115
o999 wrote: post #111

NSO Group: Relationship with the Israeli state https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSO_Group#Relationship_with_th...

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I mean, that’s true of most businesses and industries, big and small? The average person has no idea what Oracle or SAP exists, or that they are multibillion dollar companies. Most people don’t know you can just go buy plastic and composites at TAP, and all sorts of things at McMaster. Most people don’t even know who builds commercial vehicles besides like Peterbilt maybe.

Is there an argument you are making that Meta/Apple/Google should be suing all the other companies as well?

Re: US judge finds NSO Group liable for hacking journalists via WhatsApp

#138

Post by tptacek »

prpl wrote: post #137
tptacek wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

I mean, that’s true of most businesses and industries, big and small? The average person has no idea what Oracle or SAP exists, or that they are multibillion dollar companies. Most people don’t know you can just go buy plastic and composites at TAP, and all sorts of things at McMaster. Most people don’t even know who builds commercial vehicles besides like Peterbilt maybe. Is there an argument you are making that Met…

If they're trespassing on Meta's network, absolutely. The core thing that these companies do though tends not to intersect so directly with Meta's property rights.

Re: US judge finds NSO Group liable for hacking journalists via WhatsApp

#140

Post by bushbaba »

gerash wrote: post #135
ThinkBeat wrote: post #123

It is hard to believe that NSO group is allowed to operate. They sell technology to horrible places, they cause death torture, and a host of less horrible things. Yet they are protected by the US and Israel, which I believe is the case that they have backdoors into all of it, and getting the targets to actually install this malware on their own saves a lot time. All good, except for the actual real world victims.

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