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EU parliament member hit by Israeli Candiru spyware

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Re: EU parliament member hit by Israeli Candiru spyware

#93

I notice issues relating to these groups (israeli cyber groups) are very quick to be denied or delegitimised on HN

No they're not. You're the top comment on this post, despite contributing very little to this discussion. Israel and the geopolitics around mercenary spyware coming out of that country is a very regular occurrence on this site. Despite a few instances of people trying to downplay the connection or redirect the conversation, there is ample discussion of this topic. I know this because I follow this topic closely and read discussion of almost every single one. I have yet to see any evidence of any widespread or coordinated effort to brush away these issues.

Re: EU parliament member hit by Israeli Candiru spyware

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whatever Iran, China, and Russia have done is also a minor effort compared to the billions spent by the US on influence operations.

Doubtful.

Doubtful how? They have a legal system for it and they do it in the open... They're at 4.26 billions now(*), plus whatever they spend under the table.

(*) https://www.statista.com/statistics/257337/total-lobbying-sp...

Re: EU parliament member hit by Israeli Candiru spyware

#95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to be a pattern in these circles - there's at least also Palantir, named after the crystal ball that corrupted Saruman in The Lord of the Rings.

What on earth do you consider the common thread between those two names?

The common thread I'm seeing is "something you shouldn't aspire to be". That is, no one should want to be a candiru fish, nor a palantir.

Re: EU parliament member hit by Israeli Candiru spyware

#96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This piece might be relevant: https://www.leefang.com/p/inside-the-pro-israel-information

It’s a minor effort compared to the hundreds of millions Iran, China, and Russia have spent for a decade on influence operations. Those get little air time in hard progressive or far right spaces since these anti liberal influence operations mostly promote hard progressive and far right perspectives.

Struggling to imagine what a "hard progressive" space might look like or even why this is a bad thing.

(Twitter tankies are annoying, but mostly on their own initiative)

Re: EU parliament member hit by Israeli Candiru spyware

#97
post #51

[flagged]

This was my first thought.

These mercenary corporations are widely known to sell their product to anybody, including Israel's biggest enemies. This is an attempt at guilt by association, or propaganda using the association fallacy.

The government of Israel may be guilty of many things, but this is probably not one of them.

Re: EU parliament member hit by Israeli Candiru spyware

#98
post #51

[flagged]

It is Israel's problem either way. Either Israel is involved themselves, which is quite plausible given their history of this shit. Or Israel is not involved, and they massively fucked up by letting their malware be used against their supposed allies. In both cases, we are left with the question: Why are we letting this country develop malware with our approval and funding?

> In both cases, we are left with the question: Why are we letting this country develop malware with our approval and funding?

Because Western governments are the biggest customers of these companies.

Using Israeli companies makes it much more difficult for criminal defense lawyers to challenge the findings of investigations, additionally Israeli companies aren't bound by ethics codes and whatnot. Our governments can turn a blind eye what these companies are actually doing - we pay them money and get access to a target's device, no questions needed/asked.

Re: EU parliament member hit by Israeli Candiru spyware

#99
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair it is a pretty cool/appropriate name for their line of work

If we're being fair , they're an evil company that does evil work for evil people. It's abhorrent that they're using Tolkien to give themselves nerd-appeal.

The uncomfortable truth is that nerds can be evil too.

Re: EU parliament member hit by Israeli Candiru spyware

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that's it's an Israeli spyware is surely evidence (but not proof) Israel could be behind it.

Corporations are people in Israel too, outside of communist state capitalist countries the default is to assume they are separate from the government Exploit discussion is no different

If someone is spying on high level officials using Palantir malware, there is a good chance that the US at least tacitly approves of said spying. Same as if someone is using Lockheed-Martin planes to fight an insurrection, there is a very good chance that the USA approves of that fight.
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