61–70 of 255 posts
NSO sells tools that when used violate the CFAA act. It is an Israeli company but a majority share was bought by a San Francisco based VC [0]. It doesn't seem like it should be legally allowed to exist as an American owned company. Maybe Ahmed Mansoor could sue the VC in American courts. [0] http://jewishbusinessnews.com/2014/03/19/francisco-partners-...
An untethered stealth jailbreak that installs without user interaction from a webview, that's almost as bad as it gets. And for iOS 7.0.0 - 9.3.4 inclusive. And with exfiltration of audio, video, whatsapp, viber, etc etc. So thorough and so bad :-/
Reminds me of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JailbreakMe
Should exploits like this be treated as munitions, with sale to foreign governments restricted? Or any sale at all restricted? Some thoughts: * The only uses for the exploits are either illegal or by government security organizations * I don't think you can just make an explosive and sell it to a foreign government; I think there are strict export controls (though I know very few details, I only read about companies…
It's hard to imagine a scheme under which exploits could be regulated in the US that wouldn't set precedents for whether code was protected speech. I think very few people on HN would be comfortable with those precedents.
Vice has a nice writeup on the exploits as well: https://motherboard.vice.com/read/government-hackers-iphone-...
FTA: It appears that the company that provided the spyware and the zero-day exploits to the hackers targeting Mansoor is a little-known Israeli surveillance vendor called NSO, which Lookout’s vice president of research Mike Murray labeled as “basically a cyber arms dealer.” Phineas Fisher, we need you now.
There is a frustration, as a user, that as the value of the iOS exploits increase, they become more and more 'underground'. The time between OS release and public jailbreak is continually growing - and it doesn't seem to only be due to the hardening of the OS. People are selling their exploits rather than releasing them publicly. And the further underground they go, the more likely they will be utilized for nefarious…
As consumers we don't face very good choices right now. When you buy an iPhone, you don't own it. You are a sharecropper on Apple's OS license. If you buy an Android with an unlockable bootloader, you own it. But if attacked, the adversary owns the device. It's a shitty situation but it's hard not to recommend iOS to most users.
Should exploits like this be treated as munitions, with sale to foreign governments restricted? Or any sale at all restricted? Some thoughts: * The only uses for the exploits are either illegal or by government security organizations * I don't think you can just make an explosive and sell it to a foreign government; I think there are strict export controls (though I know very few details, I only read about companies…
Which foreign governments though? Not all security researchers are from your country (whichever one that may be).
This would of course open up a whole new can of worms in the US, as we are constitutionally guaranteed the right to bear arms, but that's just makes it hard, not impossible (and could possibly even serve to provide some much needed nuance to that discussion in the US).
That said, I haven't put a lot of thought into this, so a well reasoned criticism could completely change my stance.
Should exploits like this be treated as munitions, with sale to foreign governments restricted? Or any sale at all restricted? Some thoughts: * The only uses for the exploits are either illegal or by government security organizations * I don't think you can just make an explosive and sell it to a foreign government; I think there are strict export controls (though I know very few details, I only read about companies…
IIRC, thats still on the books. Its just one of those sleeping paragraphs since the PGP release.
Should exploits like this be treated as munitions, with sale to foreign governments restricted? Or any sale at all restricted? Some thoughts: * The only uses for the exploits are either illegal or by government security organizations * I don't think you can just make an explosive and sell it to a foreign government; I think there are strict export controls (though I know very few details, I only read about companies…