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Catalan Independence Leaders Targeted By Spyware, Rights Group Says (reuters.com) 30

Posted by msmash from the privacy-woes dept.
Catalonia's regional leader accused the Spanish government on Monday of spying on its citizens after a rights group said his phone and dozens more belonging to Catalan pro-independence figures had been infected with spyware used by sovereign states. From a report: The Citizen Lab digital rights group found more than 60 people linked to the Catalan separatist movement, including several members of the European Parliament, other politicians, lawyers and activists, had been targeted with "Pegasus" spyware made by Israel's NSO Group after a failed independence bid. NSO, which markets the software as a law-enforcement tool, said Citizen Lab and Amnesty International, which was not involved in this investigation but has published previous studies about Pegasus, had produced inaccurate and unsubstantiated reports to target the company.
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Catalan Independence Leaders Targeted By Spyware, Rights Group Says More

Catalan Independence Leaders Targeted By Spyware, Rights Group Says

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  • Do not feed the troll... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by franzrogar ( 3986783 ) on Monday April 18, 2022 @11:35AM (#62456644)

    The so-called "Catalan independence leaders" committed treason, public money laundry, illegal spying, etc.

    OBVIOUSLY the police would be listening!

    • OBVIOUSLY the police would be listening!

      The police should only be listening with a warrant and judicial oversight.

      • Tell that to the secret polices and secret services in all countries in the world XD

      • Re:Do not feed the troll... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by VeryFluffyBunny ( 5037285 ) on Monday April 18, 2022 @12:32PM (#62456818)
        I agree with ShanghaiBill on this one. If they were investigating a criminal matter, they could've got a warrant. They weren't. This was anti-democratic, politically motivated spying by a heavy-handed, authoritarian central government. I don't know what the govt were worried about; the majority of Catalonians don't want secession, just more economical & political autonomy where it makes sense. Many of the charges/sentences of the Catalonian campaigners are now considered extreme & unreasonable & they're dropping/exonerating them before the EU court of justice gets to review them. If anything, the central govt's response & behaviour has backfired on keeping the country united.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

          The other important point that seems to have been missed is that our phones still need to improve security because clearly it's not good enough. Most of this malware targets Apple products because they are probably the most popular single brand and have nearly uniform software, but Android devices are affected too.

          Maybe Apple should just use a small part of it's giant pile of cash to buy these companies, fix all the bugs and then keep the engineers on looking for new ones. Or Google.

          • I wouldn't be surprised if many of the software tools & techniques NSO group uses originated from the the NSA. At the govt international espionage level, it gets very political (no, not party politics) & you find some surprising bedfellows & enemies. I bet there's a whole lot going on in the dark & what we get to hear about isn't enough to make any kind of coherent, reasonable sense of.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mmell ( 832646 )
        Do you think the police acted without the backing and approval of the local judiciary? I wonder if the Spanish government in Catalonia permits the execution of sealed warrants - you know, like we do?

        • Yes, Spain does have that legal option.

          Also, they are *already* open criminal cases against them, they are not *public models* at all, and probably, because the sympathizer OP does not tell what exactly they were looking for, it's related to those cases.

        • Do you think the police acted without the backing and approval of the local judiciary? I wonder if the Spanish government in Catalonia permits the execution of sealed warrants - you know, like we do?

          Where's the Spanish Inquisition joke?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by liwy ( 6194776 )
      Juan Carlos I de Borbón is not a "Catalan Independence leader". He was the former king of Spain... For the rest, please, enlighten us. What Independence leader hasn't commit treason to its former state? For the money laundry it's basically bullshit. Please read the documents provided by the Spanish judiciary system to substantiate the claims. Literally two other countries have shit on them... founding no crime at all. And for the last, illegal spying? Ah, you must refer to the "fantastic" episode betwe

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by znrt ( 2424692 )

      they weren't suspect of anything by the time this happened except of their ideology, so this is plain and simple state political repression.

      and yes, then some of them were eventually charged and even convicted for delirious stuff like e.g. "secession" in a ruling that has already been questioned by several institutions including the european council, and will no doubt be turned down by the european court in a decade when nobody gives a shit anyway.

      who cares, right? it's easy when you control the media, the

  • They monitor those they find might present an obstacle to their continued governance. Even here in the shining beacon of hope and freedom, here in the U S of A. Even here, our government uses every tool at its disposal to monitor (yes, that means "spy on") any group or entity a government agent suspects of presenting or coming to present a problem.

    I don't think there's a nation on Earth that doesn't do that. And I don't have a problem with that - it's what I elected them to do. Now, I'll admit letting

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by znrt ( 2424692 )

      I like having a government that actively looks for and acts to neutralize threats to the status quo (at least, as long as they don't perceive me to be such a threat).

      so unlike many others, you actually deserve what's coming to you. and you get moderated "insightful". /. sometimes really cracks me up!

      First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
      Because I was not a socialist.

      Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
      Because I was not a trade unionist.

      Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
      Because I was not a Jew.

      Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

  • It is guaranteed that if Catalan separatists win and get their own country, they will do the same or worse.

    • They are already doing worst things: they already have spied on other politicians, they have passed laws forbidding using the official country language Spanish in the shop fronts, denigrated and prosecuted children for wanting to use the official country language Spanish as main language, etc.

      They only lack a remote island to build their own GULAG.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by liwy ( 6194776 )
        Please, Franz, stop your bullshit. Well not your bullshit, the same bullshit spread by the far right spanish politicians, like the ones in Vox. For your first claim, you can even use Google Streetview to just disprove it. Try any city or town in Catalonia. For the rest, Spanish government applied the 155 article of the Spanish Constitution on Catalonia. Every level of the government is closely monitored. How is it possible that they do ANYTHING that the Spanish government doesn't want? Are they morons in Ma

        • Please, liwy, stop YOUR bullshit. All points I made HAVE BEEN PROVEN by Judges.

          Contray to your claims, the language prosecuted is the Spanish: when the murderer dictator Franco was in power, there were 6 hours of Catalan (BTW, he created the first project to translate classical Latin and Greek texts into Catalan language, you ignorant). Nowadays, there are 2 hours of Spanish. WHO IS THE REAL DICTATOR?

          Are you reaaaally crying you have 2 TV Channels for a REGIONAL language? CRY ME A RIVER. How many are in ara

          • Re: (Score:1)

            by liwy ( 6194776 )
            Ah, yes? Were? Because in Belgium & Italy the judges were unable to find ANYTHING. Also, the judges in Spain have a little problem with "finding things". Just an example: how much money was "laundered" by the Catalan independentists? 0€, 9 million €, 3 million €. 'Cause the judges "that have proven that" still have no idea what the number is. Please read the sentence, quite funny. It mentions thinks that happened in towns and cities THAT DOESN'T EVEN EXIST! For the rest of the crap that y

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by liwy ( 6194776 )
              Oh, by the way, the first "project" for the translations of the classics (greeks and latin) into Catalan is from the year 1471. Franco had quite a large life, so it seems. Again, Wikipedia or Enciclopedia Britannica. You know what you call "indoctrination" (what the rest of the World calls learning). In reality is quite funny when you can destroy "the arguments" of the real "indoctrinators" just by looking at an Encyclopedia. xD Yes they're that bad...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mmell ( 832646 )
      Yeah - so the question of who's dishonest is answered, it's both sides in this case. I suppose that only leaves the question: can Caledonians become self-governing?

  • I've been hearing for a long time about Pegasus, especially when Bezos' cellphone was targeted over two years ago. [wired.com]

    My question is since the industry has been fixing these issues one by one, isn't it time to band together and collectively share information on Pegasus attack vectors?? [cybersecurityworks.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by znrt ( 2424692 )

      i think that simply not trusting any cell-phone ever is a far smarter strategy than accepting to play that cat&mouse game you can't possibly win, but i reckon it makes for a good sport ;-)

      then again, information technology isn't the only field our politicians tend to be completely ignorant in.

      • Given the scope of attack vectors, I don't think we can isolate this particular system as mobile-only.
        It also seems most of the attack vectors exploited say in Bezos' case was involving old, fixed vulnerabilities; at least most. I would think the then Chairman/CEO of Amazon would have an up-to-date iPhone?

        I also think there are also telling signs, for example, to cite Bezos' case, his phone typically uploaded only a few KB/day. Then all of a sudden it was MB/day. From an analytic perspective maybe network m

  • Old joke (Score:1)

    by Chas ( 5144 )

    The rain in Spain falls mainly on the...SPANIARDS!

    Because if it falls on the Catalans, they'll try to secede!

  • Of course they will be spied on. They are trying to tear apart a sovereign nation after all.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by liwy ( 6194776 )
      Like they did in the USA with the UK? You know that the lines on the maps are made by people. And people change and evolve...

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by liwy ( 6194776 )
      They spied a friend of mine, that works trying to help people without resources to access universities. So dangerous! Also, they spied MEPS, lawyers,... quite normal, neh?

  • Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! (Score:3)

    by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Monday April 18, 2022 @06:14PM (#62457802)
    They have just gone high tech now.

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