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Security

Israel Begins Investigation Into NSO Group Spyware Abuse (technologyreview.com) 21

Israeli government officials visited the offices of the hacking company NSO Group on Wednesday to investigate allegations that the firm's spyware has been used to target activists, politicians, business executives, and journalists, the country's Ministry of Defense said in a statement today. From a report: An investigation published last week by 17 global media organizations, claims that phone numbers belonging to notable figures have been targeted by Pegasus, the notorious spyware that is NSO's best-selling product. The Israeli Ministry of Defense did not specify which government agencies were involved in the investigation, but Israeli media previously reported that the Foreign Ministry, Justice Ministry, Mossad, and Military Intelligence were also looking into the company following the publication of the Pegasus Project. NSO Group CEO Shalev Hulio confirmed to MIT Technology Review that the visit had taken place, but continued the company's denials that the list published by reporters was linked to Pegasus.

"That's true," he said. "I believe it's very good that they are checking, since we know the truth and we know that the list never existed and is not related to NSO." The reports focused largely on the successful hacking of 37 smartphones of business leaders, journalists, and human rights activists. But they also pointed to a leaked list of over 50,000 more phone numbers of interest in countries that are reportedly clients of NSO Group. The company has repeatedly denied the reporting. At this point, both the source of and meaning of the list remain unclear, but numerous phones on the list were hacked according to technical analysis by Amnesty International's Security Lab. When asked if the government's investigation process will continue, Hulio said he hopes it will be ongoing. "We want them to check everything and make sure that the allegations are wrong," he added.

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Israel Begins Investigation Into NSO Group Spyware Abuse

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  • But "technical" is just the starting point of this story. This is actually a gigantic can of worms and the most serious are actually "human rights" problems.

    For what little it's worth, I guess my short answer is "We have to because of the time factor." Some (probably most) problems are too pressing and fast-changing to wait for deep study and analysis. In that context, journalism is the best solution approach we have, but that makes journalism part of any solution.

    Too bad I can't point at any examples of jo

    • Can you trust these journalists on this technical matter?

      Well, the journalists' source code is OSS on github so you can verify it yourself. https://github.com/mvt-project... [github.com]. Many eyeballs.

      • by shanen ( 462549 )

        One of the biggest delusions of OSS. Theoretically possible, but in reality it's basically like a foreign language. I can only evaluate the linguistic competence of someone who speaks at my level or below. Beyond that, it's just "better than me". It doesn't do me any good at all to have access to the source code unless I'm competent with that particular language, but even then the question is whether the code is at or below my skill level. (And no, I don't have infinite time in which to raise my skill level

  • by Alain Williams ( 2972 ) <addw@phcomp.co.uk> on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:17PM (#61631393) Homepage

    a whitewash of NSO, not their fault that their software is "being abused". Sure they will find a few small points where "improvements can be made", but that will be about that. The executive summary has already been written, so business as usual.

    • a whitewash of NSO, not their fault that their software is "being abused". Sure they will find a few small points where "improvements can be made", but that will be about that. The executive summary has already been written, so business as usual.

      Yup.

      I could damn near put money on this, it's so accurate.

      • So they are investigating themselves? How dramatic and I just watched "Sodom and Gomorrah" too, you know the story of Lot and his family... Doon't Looook Baaaack...!
    • by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Not true. Israel and the Mossad play a little game. Senior Officer to be next sneaky lying murdering General, retires (but doesn't actually get promoted) and starts a new off the books tech corporation. That the Israeli government and Mossad control, to do all kinds of illegal stuff. Like, testing biological weapons against neighbouring countries farm produce, whilst changing Israel farm produce to be safe from that biological weapon (they worked hard on it US busted them). There is no way they could be tha

  • by goldspider ( 445116 ) on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @03:46PM (#61631477) Homepage

    ...and found no wrongdoing.

  • Unless Israel determines that NSO Group aided enemies of Israel they will get a slap on the wrist. NSO Group is too valuable an asset to lose.

    Israel knows to keep their friends close and the potential weapons of their adversaries closer.
  • by ugen ( 93902 ) on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @04:03PM (#61631517)

    Mr Fox will thoroughly investigate any possible transgressions committed by Mr Weasel in guarding the safety and freedom of the hens entrusted into his care.

    Being a well known paragon of citizen privacy (look up how Israel handled monitoring of COVID contacts using their equivalent of the NSA), I have no doubt the result will be fair and balanced.

    Ok, seriously, this is business as usual, the company was operating exactly as intended, and most certainly with full knowledge and close contact with the Israeli government.

  • Ya? So what? Why should we trust them?
  • by BardBollocks ( 1231500 ) on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @04:23PM (#61631619)

    .. one of the companies enabling their targeting of their assassination operations.

    I'd hate to believe anyone is stupid enough to treat this investigation as having any credibility, but you know, people wanting to hold Israel to account for their crimes against humanity and ongoing ethnic cleansing are just being anti-Semitic.. RIGHT?

    • The life expectancy in the Palestinian areas is higher than in surrounding countries.

      Funny when people actually live longer under "ethnic cleansing" than without it.

      • The life expectancy in the Palestinian areas is higher than in surrounding countries.

        Life expectancy at birth:

        Gaza: 74.9
        Lebanon: 78.88

        Yes, some other "surrounding countries" have lower life expectancy, but not all of them.

  • Where is Phineas Fisher when you need him
  • Going on vacation for two weeks, then announcing that you found no wrongdoing.

  • by Ultimer ( 8105522 )
    Hi there! I think that if people had more freedom with security provided, there would be no need for security cameras for the house and so on, but Israel shows us that everything is a little more complicated when potential villains have spyware. For example, I manage the security system calmly https://ajax.systems/ [ajax.systems]. I think that many people could have heard about this on YouTube in explanatory reviews and on some forums where such systems are discussed. For example, I hope that this will save me.

Truly simple systems... require infinite testing. -- Norman Augustine

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