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Tuesday, July 20, 2021

Leak uncovers global abuse of cyber-surveillance weapon

Human rights activists, journalists and lawyers across the world have been targeted by authoritarian governments using hacking software sold by the Israeli surveillance company NSO Group, according to an investigation into a massive data leak. 

The investigation by the Guardian and 16 other media organisations suggests widespread and continuing abuse of NSO’s hacking spyware, Pegasus, which the company insists is only intended for use against criminals and terrorists. 

Pegasus is a malware that infects iPhones and Android devices to enable operators of the tool to extract messages, photos and emails, record calls and secretly activate microphones.

5 comments:

  1. anyone who didn't figured this shit out after watching the wire, or any other show where the main plot is gov't overreach is behind the game. I ditched the cell phone back in 2016 and never
    looked back. all these new programs and they still can't stop bad things from happening ?
    they not looking at the bad guys, they are watching us.
    trusting the feds to look out for what best for us is a really bad joke. they there to either get rich or they get off on the power to fuck others over. maybe both.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, ankle bracelet / pocket snitch only comes with me if I'm going somewhere with elevated risk or I'm probably going to need to call for a ride.

      I remember hearing how such and such terrorist was caught because his phone / device reports a lifetime of pings of every location it has ever been.

      clicked together relatively easily that if it has a lifetime history then anyone with access to the data can create a heat map about where you shop, who you know, how often you visit and at what time(s); it knows which roads you take and when, all of that can be cross verified with ALPR systems, Ez tag, etc. Even commercial entities scan ez-tag in densely populated areas.

      There are a lot of systems I can't control but I can control my phone and phones never come with me to the BoL or even the drive way.

      I'll eventually get another phone but it will be an open phone or privacy centered phone, with a removable battery and pre-paid option. It can still be determined who owns it by geolocation if you are sloppy but it's better than verizon.

      The NSO group is one of those evil groups that inspires me to want to drop what I'm doing and get intimate with programming.

      -arc

      Delete
  2. That Pegasus is good. It's infected my 1963 rotary wall phone. How do I know? Every time I move the curly cord around I hear the malware critters moving around.

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  3. "Without forensic examination of mobile devices, it is impossible to say whether phones were subjected to an attempted or successful hack using Pegasus."

    I'm calling bullshit on that statement. All they have to do is query the mobile carrier to determine what was downloaded to the phone, thus determining if the phone was infected or not.

    Yet another reason to turn the pocket tracking off when you're out and about and if you can't turn it off, toss it and get one that you can. Although, I usually check my battery level when I turn my phone off, then again when I turn it back on. The two numbers never match, which begs the question, how does the battery on a turned off phone discharge if the phone is not active.

    Nemo

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  4. Kinda old news .... Stingrays were doing all that years back

    And stingrays 'instructed' all fones it encountered to initiate the same controls in every other fone they exchanged signals with ... if the shitheads of Ft. Meade want data they'll get it

    ReplyDelete

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