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I really wish the public narrative concerning spyware would shift to something analogous to how we see the state monopoly on violence. The police are a necessa
by TOMDM 5y ago
I really wish the public narrative concerning spyware would shift to something analogous to how we see the state monopoly on violence.
The police are a necessary institution that needs oversight and criticism to ensure that the dignity and rights of the population are preserved as much as possible. To that end, we don't hand over the role to private militia that has sparse regulation and no accountability.
NSO Group are the private police with sparse regulation and no accountability of the spyware world. They don't simply sell the means to an end, they operate and deploy those means on behalf of customers.
Just as we shouldn't accept police hiring private forces to kick down doors to check in on suspects, we shouldn't accept the contracting of services from NSO Group.
- grugq 5y agoThe FBI uses private contractors for highly specialised tasks, and they perform a law enforcement role also.
- um_ya 5y agoIf I were Apple, I'd try to arbitrage these exploits by getting somebody on the inside to find out where the attack vectors are. I blame the companies for being exploitable.
- pelasaco 5y agoAre they? I see them more as Glock, H&K and other defense manufacturing company than a private militia.. no?
- TOMDM 5y agoI'd argue that they're like those manufacturing companies and a militia rolled into one. They don't simply develop the malware and give it to customers to deploy, they operate and deploy their spyware on behalf of those customers as well.
- pelasaco 5y agoThey operate the infrastructure. For me it's clear a SaaS (spyware as a service (TM)) But to avoid the whataboutism, the flip side of the coin is that NSO democratize the access to those tools, normally restricted to just a small group of countries.