Live data from Hacker News

ICE Has a $2M Contract for Spyware That Can Hack Phones Without a Click

military.com

21–30 of 60 posts

Re: ICE Has a $2M Contract for Spyware That Can Hack Phones Without a Click

#21

Meanwhile in Serbia https://citizenlab.ca/research/pegasus-spyware-infection-of-... "In collaboration with the SHARE Foundation, the Citizen Lab analyzed forensic artefacts from the iPhone of a member of Serbia’s student protest movement after they received an Apple Threat Notification warning of targeting with mercenary spyware." Zero clicks are cheap if NSO can afford to go after students.

When a company sells a 0-click exploit like that, they don't sell the actual malware/exploit, they sell access to a service or product. The contract will likely have a certain number of attacks with additional infections having a set price of $XXk.

That is how companies like Crowdfense can pay up to $5 million for an exploit. The sell it to some service (or have the service themselves) and generate revenue off of that. The person who sells that exploit gets some of that revenue, they're not getting $5 million up front.

Re: ICE Has a $2M Contract for Spyware That Can Hack Phones Without a Click

#23

> Graphite belongs to the same category of commercial surveillance technology as Pegasus, the better-known spyware developed by NSO Group. Both are classified as mercenary spyware, meaning private companies develop and sell them to government intelligence and law enforcement agencies. This buries the lede a bit. These companies play their part in trans-national organized crime networks, spanning countries like the US…

What is ICE doing besides immigration control?

Re: ICE Has a $2M Contract for Spyware That Can Hack Phones Without a Click

#24

> Graphite belongs to the same category of commercial surveillance technology as Pegasus, the better-known spyware developed by NSO Group. Both are classified as mercenary spyware, meaning private companies develop and sell them to government intelligence and law enforcement agencies. This buries the lede a bit. These companies play their part in trans-national organized crime networks, spanning countries like the US…

> ICE is becoming a paramilitary force

this is how the gestapo gets established.

Re: ICE Has a $2M Contract for Spyware That Can Hack Phones Without a Click

#25

    > Researchers have confirmed Graphite attacks through WhatsApp and iMessage, although the complete method remains secret.

unsurprising that it's closed source software which is vulnerable like this. LLMs can now decompile binaries very efficiently so it's not even security by obscurity anymore.

you really have to screw up to not carefully trace the path of incoming messages to ensure they are processed safely.

Re: ICE Has a $2M Contract for Spyware That Can Hack Phones Without a Click

#26

> Graphite belongs to the same category of commercial surveillance technology as Pegasus, the better-known spyware developed by NSO Group. Both are classified as mercenary spyware, meaning private companies develop and sell them to government intelligence and law enforcement agencies. This buries the lede a bit. These companies play their part in trans-national organized crime networks, spanning countries like the US…

there are many if these companies and toolkits. too many to mention. more than 150 countries spend over 10M a year on _offensive_ cyber. generally making use of such toolkits if they lack inhouse capabilities, which is pretty much all of those countries because the people creating the capabilities will refuse to work for them, so they can sell their tools.

Re: ICE Has a $2M Contract for Spyware That Can Hack Phones Without a Click

#27

> Graphite belongs to the same category of commercial surveillance technology as Pegasus, the better-known spyware developed by NSO Group. Both are classified as mercenary spyware, meaning private companies develop and sell them to government intelligence and law enforcement agencies. This buries the lede a bit. These companies play their part in trans-national organized crime networks, spanning countries like the US…

What is ICE doing besides immigration control?

causing misery

Re: ICE Has a $2M Contract for Spyware That Can Hack Phones Without a Click

#28

> Graphite belongs to the same category of commercial surveillance technology as Pegasus, the better-known spyware developed by NSO Group. Both are classified as mercenary spyware, meaning private companies develop and sell them to government intelligence and law enforcement agencies. This buries the lede a bit. These companies play their part in trans-national organized crime networks, spanning countries like the US…

> I cannot unsee this from the massive purges in the military, rooting out the most competent leadership.

Structural coherence issues aside, is this some sort of a joke, or just thinly veiled personal bias presented as fact?

Re: ICE Has a $2M Contract for Spyware That Can Hack Phones Without a Click

#30

> Graphite belongs to the same category of commercial surveillance technology as Pegasus, the better-known spyware developed by NSO Group. Both are classified as mercenary spyware, meaning private companies develop and sell them to government intelligence and law enforcement agencies. This buries the lede a bit. These companies play their part in trans-national organized crime networks, spanning countries like the US…

Becoming?
Post reply on HN