Pegasus 'Lawful Intercept' Spyware For iOS Used To Target Activists, Journalists

[Lucian Armasu]

Citizen Lab and Lookout uncover "lawful intercept" spyware that's used to target activists and journalists, including the New York Times in a recent attack.

Pegasus 'Lawful Intercept' Spyware For iOS Used To Target Activists, Journalists : Read more

 

[Achoo22]

That's just the tip of the iceberg, though. Our own citizenry is being targeted every day. Try to buy a wireless security camera setup that can't be hacked and then look to our government that is, instead of passing stronger security and privacy legislation, manifestly waging war against closed systems and cryptography. It's a mess.

 

[memadmax]

WHATEVER DUDE!
I get emails EVERY DAY about someone whom has a million dollars somewhere that they inherited from their brothers sisters cousins second wife, and ALL THEY NEED for me to get a piece of the pie is bank account info/money order/etc etc etc...

This monsour guy is just looking for more 15 minutes of fame... There is NOTHING new about what he has received... And he should just stop being a cry baby...

 

[Kimonajane]

You want your conversation private you need to go old school and meet face to face but then need to be careful where you talk, cameras can capture you and the fascist FED hacks can lip read too.

 

[lonewarder]

Please stay out of politics, Tom's. You guys have been, for over a decade, one of the few places one can go to escape the 'mainstream media' and read excellently written, unbiased articles.

 

[bit_user]

Please stay out of politics, Tom's.

How is this biased or political, exactly?

It's factual reporting about real security flaws and real exploits of them which put users of those products at risk. This is important tech journalism, and I support it.

 

[Kimonajane]

Please stay out of politics, Tom's. You guys have been, for over a decade, one of the few places one can go to escape the 'mainstream media' and read excellently written, unbiased articles.

No I'll say what I see happening by a fascist Federal big government when i Feel like it. Noobs like you just want to roll over and let them own you, FOOL.

 

[srmojuze]

I highly commend Tom's for reporting on such key (pun unintended) information.

Isn't it amazing how our governments are spending so much of ~our~ resources to compromise, infect, backdoor and damage our devices in the name of "protecting" us?

In regards to iOS: Interesting to learn how they jailbreaked iOS. Bet it whet the appetite of the waning iOS jailbreak community. In any case using Cyanogen Mod or dissecting Android ROMs and the popularity of Android in general is leaving iOS further behind. A closed ecosystem with zero access to source code (unlike Android, BTW yes, Google's no angel, I know)... Anyway, a closed ecosystem with zero access to source code, nice time to say bye bye to Apple.

As for Windows... darn it you can play nice games on it still!!!

 

[psiboy]

Good article! It's always nice to know just how vulnerable we are to our own shitty western governments! They should invest more in stopping guns and drugs.. seriously! Another article proving what I say every day! "If it's a connected device it's vulnerable, regardless of platform!"

 

[bit_user]

Isn't it amazing how our governments are spending so much of ~our~ resources to compromise, infect, backdoor and damage our devices in the name of "protecting" us?

At this point it time it can be clearly stated that the US Government is one of the biggest hacking operations on the planet. But that's old news by now, I guess.

So, what's with all this anti-US sentiment? Unless I missed something, the article describes bugs in Apple's products being exploited by private companies, who are selling their spy-ware to other governments.

I don't mean to defend the NSA, or anything - just try to comment on the actual article, at least.

 

[srmojuze]

Isn't it amazing how our governments are spending so much of ~our~ resources to compromise, infect, backdoor and damage our devices in the name of "protecting" us?

At this point it time it can be clearly stated that the US Government is one of the biggest hacking operations on the planet. But that's old news by now, I guess.

So, what's with all this anti-US sentiment? Unless I missed something, the article describes bugs in Apple's products being exploited by private companies, who are selling their spy-ware to other governments.

I don't mean to defend the NSA, or anything - just try to comment on the actual article, at least.

Apologies, I jumped the gun in targeting the US specifically. In regards to the article:

"Mansoor was first targeted with the tools of two infamous hacking groups that tend to sell their spyware to governments around the world, such as Gamma International (in 2011), and Hacking Team (in 2012)."

So I would say, the US is most likely involved (due to various revelations recently eg. Snowden revelations, admissions by government agencies on record, fake cell towers used to illegally intercept user data, demand for more backdoors, iOS encryption battle, etc).

Of course the US is not the only government or group engaged is such illegal and nefarious activities. Five Eyes etc and Russia and China implicates a global hacking obsession.

What is concerning in regards to this article is how governments around the world are now clearly deeply in bed with blackhat hacking groups which such governments are supposed to be fighting against.

It also highlights the sheer irony of those in "authority" because blackhat hacking groups also are themselves or also in cahoots with terrorist organisations, again, which governments around the world are supposed to be battling.

In any case, cheers, I have edited my previous post accordingly.