Earlier quoted context omitted.
Auschwitz wasn't in Germany.
and? was build by german in german occupied Poland
Bad people often put their bad stuff in other countries.
US-backed Israeli company's spyware used to target European journalists
361–370 of 450 posts
Re: US-backed Israeli company's spyware used to target European journalists
#362There is now a rich history in outsourcing activities that would otherwise be illegal to other countries where it is legal. For example, the CIA's extreme rendition [1], knowingly sending prisoners to countries to be tortured and/or executed. This is how such countries make themselves useful to American empire. Likewise, restrictions on the NSA spying on American citizens, for example, are bypassed by outsourcing tha…
Chomsky described these countries as "mercenary states". One of his books, Understanding Power, dives into the topic quite a bit.
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Re: US-backed Israeli company's spyware used to target European journalists
#363Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could also be that both are being untruthful. Lincoln let us know a long time ago, there are times when "both may be, but one must be". Personally, I think there may even be times when both parties are being truthful. ie - you're being played by a third party. I'd imagine this is the sort of fallout when things go sideways and there is not the requisite level of trust on both sides to definitively run down root cause…
https://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/medita... . (Is that 3rd party -- God ? xD)
Not normally.
But if it makes you feel better, the third party is usually playing God.
Re: US-backed Israeli company's spyware used to target European journalists
#364Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Just admit it and then it becomes possible to find a solution that doesn’t require murdering tens of thousands of Palestinian children to ethnically cleanse Palestinians that won’t give up their right to return. Out of curiosity, what would that be? From what I've seen, you'd either have to build a wall/externally enforced border, hoping they get over it after forced peace for X years, or force migrate one of them.
I met an old Palestinian man who still works manual, hard labor. Both his sisters were killed by Israeli Air Force bombing. His family was displaced from Haifa during the nakba. Most his elder brothers were kicked out of Palestine decades ago due to their resistance. Do you know what he spent most of his time in discussion complaining about? How his best friend hurt him years ago and caused him lots of frustrating ha…
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Re: US-backed Israeli company's spyware used to target European journalists
#365I feel like anyone serious about doing actual journalism needs to start with a decent Cyber Security 101 course. Does anyone know of one?
I mean what can you feasibly do against these zero-click exploits? There's only really two things you can do: 1. keep your phone's identifiers secret, as they must target the devices in some way (like phone number/email/whatever) or 2. don't own a phone
Split up your information so a compromise of any one system does not compromise everything you are working on. For instance, storing contact information on a source on a separate device from any/all information provided by that source. If system A is compromised, they know you contact someone at 123-456-7890 but know not much else. If system B is compromised, they know someone is providing information on corruption within Wakanda’s government, but have no identifying information.
Trying to get into multiple systems and corollate/reconstruct information is much more difficult, time consuming, and likely to be much less complete. If a state actor has decided to stop at nothing to get you, it probably wont help, but if you are just someone that could end up on someone’s list, it will likely help.
Re: US-backed Israeli company's spyware used to target European journalists
#366This is my irritating reminder that there is a whole marketplace of implant/CNE products, most of which you have never heard of, produced in basically every jurisdiction in the world. It used to be NSO Group that got all the press, now it's Paragon, and I think it's all for the good that the spotlight gets shone on these companies, but do keep in mind that this is not an "Israeli" phenomenon. There are American compa…
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Re: US-backed Israeli company's spyware used to target European journalists
#367Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chomsky described these countries as "mercenary states". One of his books, Understanding Power, dives into the topic quite a bit.
Chomsky has supported "anti-imperialist" russia and ignored all warnings by the eastern European people, who dared to walk out on socialism in a freedom movement. Blood on the hands, blood on the quill, blood in the will..
Chomsky also believes 2+2=4. Is that also wrong because you don’t like some of his other beliefs? You seem to think so.
Re: US-backed Israeli company's spyware used to target European journalists
#368Oh look Apple devices were hacked again . Security through obscurity isnt really working out. Their big cash apparently isnt enough. I have sensitive data on my phone that I must carry around, and there is no way I'd ever keep it on an iphone. 'Pegasus' was the moment corporations and governments should have banned iphones for their terrible security.
Closed source doesn't imply security through obscurity. Any operating system, closed or open, can be vulnerable. iOS is a big, relevant target, and obviously a lack of publicity/quantity of commercial exploits against AOSP and Desktop Linux doesn't necessarily mean good security.
Re: US-backed Israeli company's spyware used to target European journalists
#369This is my irritating reminder that there is a whole marketplace of implant/CNE products, most of which you have never heard of, produced in basically every jurisdiction in the world. It used to be NSO Group that got all the press, now it's Paragon, and I think it's all for the good that the spotlight gets shone on these companies, but do keep in mind that this is not an "Israeli" phenomenon. There are American compa…
The issue isn't the mere existence of spyware companies globally. The issue is that Israeli companies in particular have cornered the market on selling to the world's worst human rights abusers, with catastrophic consequences.
Let's be specific: NSO Group sold Pegasus to Saudi Arabia, who used it to track Jamal Khashoggi's inner circle before his assassination. They sold to Mexico, where it was used to target journalists' families within days of their murders. To Rwanda, to hunt dissidents abroad after imprisoning their family. The list goes on.
This isn't cherry-picking. When Citizen Lab analyzes global sypware operations, Israeli companies dominate: NSO, Candiru, Paragon, QuaDream, and arguably Cytrox (Macedonian, but Israeli leadership and investors). The common thread? Former Unit 8200 personnel, who've turned state cyber-warfare capabilities into a business model explicitly built on selling to authoritarians.
Your "but everyone does it" framing fundamentally misrepresents the issue. Yes, other countries have surveillance companies. But there's a massive difference between developing capabilities and systematically selling them to regimes that murder journalists. WHen was the last time a German or French company's tools were found on a murdered journalist's or imprisoned political dissident's phone?
The data shows Israeli companies don't just happen to have "bad PR" (or uniquely terrible luck in choosing their clients) - they actively court authoritarian clients because that's where the money is if you have no morals.
For some context: Israel has a population of less than 10 Million - less than 0.1% of the world's population. If you have a persuasive argument for why Israeli spyware is routinely found by organizations like Citizen Lab, why their products seem so uniquely popular and successful with fascists and authoritarians, I'd love to hear it. Because from where I'm standing, the clear and obvious explanation is that there is a deep, systemic issue in the Israeli private intelligence and cybersecurity sector that is entirely unconcerned with how their tools will be used, or by whom, as long as the money's right. All enabled by the Israeli authorities, who need to approve of these exports.
You're right that spyware companies exist elsewhere. But when researchers keep finding the same tiny country's products in the phones of murdered journalists and jailed activists, dismissing scrutiny as bias is itself a bias. The question isn't why Israeli companies get attention - it's why they keep selling to regimes that use their tools to crush dissent, and worse.
Re: US-backed Israeli company's spyware used to target European journalists
#370Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chomsky described these countries as "mercenary states". One of his books, Understanding Power, dives into the topic quite a bit.
Chomsky has supported "anti-imperialist" russia and ignored all warnings by the eastern European people, who dared to walk out on socialism in a freedom movement. Blood on the hands, blood on the quill, blood in the will..
This is an inexcusable ad-hominem argument. This is not how we discuss things on this platform.