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Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

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Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#61

Post by breakingcups »

hn8788 wrote: post #36
esens wrote: post #28

Anyone notice that this statement from NSO in the article doesn't make sense: "NSO does not operate its technology, does not collect, nor possesses, nor has any access to any kind of data of its customers." If this is true, how do we have a singular list of all phone numbers penetrated? If there was this type of "segmentation" or firewall between NSO and its clients, why was there this huge central data leak? NSO is…

It could mean that NSO controls the infrastructure that manages the tool, but that they don't actually collect the data themselves. So what they said could technically be true if all they do is manage the infrastructure that enables their clients to do the collection of data.

How does that clear with "NSO does not operate its technology" though?

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#62

Post by h1fra »

igorzx31 wrote: post #47
flyinglizard wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The biggest customers for these companies are Western governments. You’re not going to take away their toys.

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.

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#63

Post by duxup »

b112 wrote: post #49
jjoonathan wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It feels like this is more a result of Amazon not being able to connect you with the right escalation path to verify & act on these claims than a considered decision to ignore them. Does anyone here know what an individual reporter should do? Is there an escalation ramp that exists but was so poorly marked that neither sloshnmosh nor Amazon support was able to find it? Does the ramp go through other organizations (e.…

It feels like this is more a result of Amazon not being able to connect you with the right escalation path to verify & act on these claims than a considered decision to ignore them. Those two things are actually the same thing, both are wilfully ignoring situations like this.

They can be very different things.

Poor communication channels happen even when folks don't want it to. Humans are bad at doing such things.

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#64

Post by londons_explore »

jjoonathan wrote: post #33
sloshnmosh wrote: post #20

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…

It feels like this is more a result of Amazon not being able to connect you with the right escalation path to verify & act on these claims than a considered decision to ignore them. Does anyone here know what an individual reporter should do? Is there an escalation ramp that exists but was so poorly marked that neither sloshnmosh nor Amazon support was able to find it? Does the ramp go through other organizations (e.…

Doesn't cloudfront generally act like cloudflare? Ie. We don't inspect your content. Law enforcement are the only people who can stop us hosting a site.

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#65

Post by ThrowawayR2 »

xoa wrote: post #23
Spooky23 wrote: post #3

Shouldn’t there be an outcry against the suppression of free speech? When Facebook or Google blocks extremist propaganda, it’s a big thing. What jurisdiction’s laws were broken by this company?

> Shouldn’t there be an outcry against the suppression of free speech? Only if someone was one of the many people who don't understand what Free Speech is or incorrectly think of rights only in terms of themselves and people they like, not for those who they don't. In this case, Amazon is exercising their own Free Speech rights. Free speech necessarily (and as a matter of law) means the freedom to not speak and to no…

> "In this case, Amazon is exercising their own Free Speech rights."

Corporations aren't humans; they don't have free speech rights.

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#66

Post by apercu »

LoveLeadAcid wrote: post #46
neom wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's "DigitalOcean" - sorry to be pedantic, it drives me absolutely nuts when people put a space between, especially publications.

I call it an iPad and an iPhone, not iPad and iPhone like Apple wants me to.

Thanks for this. I needed a chuckle.

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#67

Post by polar »

CTDOCodebases wrote: post #16

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-...

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#68

Post by detritus »

neom wrote: post #8
justinclift wrote: post #2

Ouch. > The Amnesty report said NSO is also using services from other companies such as Digital Ocean, OVH, and Linode ... We've been using Digital Ocean for a few years now (sqlitebrowser.org), and they've been really good. Hopefully they look into this and take some useful action. :)

It's "DigitalOcean" - sorry to be pedantic, it drives me absolutely nuts when people put a space between, especially publications.

I see you 'helped build' Digital Ocean, so I can understand your personal reasoning, but really - it's not at all important to anyone else.

Also, wasn't that a bit of a fad back in the late 90s early 00s? I know my wee business followed the path of concatenating words for brand ...something... , but I honestly couldn't care less how other people deploy it in their own space, as long as they remember the name.

Re: Amazon Shuts Down NSO Group Infrastructure

#70

Post by polar »

largbae wrote: post #52
tptacek wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I'd like a link if so, I have been interested in why that story isn't more important, given the attention other state-sponsored hacks have received...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-05-05/how-jeff-...
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