Live data from Hacker News

Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

vice.com

191–200 of 260 posts

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#191

I contacted Amazon to report an advertiser out of Tel Aviv that was using JavaScript hosted on CloudFront to fingerprint user's devices and if an Android device was detected a fake media player or fake CAPTCHA would trick user's into accepting push notifications for fake virus warnings to install questionable apps from the Play Store. This script also pushed ads for a fake AdBlock app that was a dropper for banking t…

I wouldn’t be so quick to rush into a future where Amazon takedowns are as easy as YouTube DMCA requests.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#192
post #67

WTF? Wasn’t it the NSO that hacked Bezos’s and Khashoggi’s phone? I guess the customer is always right up until the point the widow of your murdered employee goes to the press.

> Bezos Bezos' phone probably wasn't hacked. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-05-05/how-jeff-...

[flagged]

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#193
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn’t be so quick to rush into a future where Amazon takedowns are as easy as YouTube DMCA requests.

In the meantime, Google and Amazon simply ignore all complaints about spam originating from their networks. In the olden days of the internet, ISPs that ignored abuse complaints would be blocked by their peers. Now that Gmail and AWS are too big to block, they act with impunity.

> In the meantime, Google and Amazon simply ignore all complaints about spam originating from their networks

How did we get to equating selling tools for murdering journalists to spam in just three comments?

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#194
post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the meantime, Google and Amazon simply ignore all complaints about spam originating from their networks. In the olden days of the internet, ISPs that ignored abuse complaints would be blocked by their peers. Now that Gmail and AWS are too big to block, they act with impunity.

> In the meantime, Google and Amazon simply ignore all complaints about spam originating from their networks How did we get to equating selling tools for murdering journalists to spam in just three comments?

I don't see where anyone in this thread said that the two are equivalent?

Amazon (and others') pervasive shitty handling of non-DMCA abuse reports seems relevant, however.

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#195
post #4

Wonder if NSO was involved in that leak of Bezo's phone data awhile back.

From Amazon Unbound, p.344: > De Becker then commissioned an examination of Bezos’s iPhone X. The eventual report by Anthony Ferrante, a longtime colleague of de Becker’s and the former director for cyber incident response for the U.S. National Security Council, concluded that the promotional video about broadband prices that MBS had sent Bezos the previous year likely contained a copy of Pegasus, a piece of nearly i…

> The eventual report by Anthony Ferrante, a longtime colleague of de Becker’s and the former director for cyber incident response for the U.S. National Security Council, concluded that the promotional video about broadband prices that MBS had sent Bezos the previous year likely contained a copy of Pegasus, a piece of nearly invisible malware created by an Israeli company called NSO Group.

Key word in that sentence: "likely." AFAIK, nothing has been proven beyond rumor and conjecture, which isn't proof of anything at all.

Did they find the Pegasus or related code on the phone, or not? That is a yes or no answer. Likely?

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#197
post #26
post #4

Wonder if NSO was involved in that leak of Bezo's phone data awhile back.

Wasn't there recently a whole huge story about how it turned out to be his girlfriend's brother?

It's not a contradiction. Whoever would have ordered NSO or similar actor to hack Bezos' phone is probably after more juicy info than a dick pic or at least wouldn't leak it for 'lulz' and thereby revealing that the phone is compromised somehow.

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#198
post #9

Perhaps NSO Group should be considered a terrorism-aiding organization. Freeze its assets, track all their employees, backers, etc. Wonder if they are even helping to hack US government employees through China, etc. (besides just helping to torture dissidents).

The Israeli government classified Pegasus, the software by NSO currently in the news, as a weapon, thus restricting its exports. If you look at the list of customers, it quickly becomes clear that they are the same organizations that make the laws.

“State backed terrorist group” is a classification that exists, although it’s highly unlikely to be used here for obvious reasons.

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#199
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their biggest customers are middle eastern governments according to the WaPo article. US certainly has bought the software but it's mostly Saudi, UAE, Qatar, etc. US has NSA so they don't really need some software. Middle eastern powers dont have the same type of technical expertise to develop their own in-house.

So should we consider the NSA a terrorism-aiding organization? edit: the tone is lost via internet; my own opinion on this: yes, it is.

Yes. We should.

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#200
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So should we consider the NSA a terrorism-aiding organization? edit: the tone is lost via internet; my own opinion on this: yes, it is.

Does terrorizing citizens through illegal spying and mass surveillance constitute terrorism ? Or does only setting off bombs in public spaces count?

Terrorism aiding, they said.
Post reply on HN