9 ms·
Why doesn't Apple just buy NSO and use them as an internal defense group?
by gataca 5y ago
Why doesn't Apple just buy NSO and use them as an internal defense group?
- mathverse 5y agoBecause it makes no sense. NSO is just one of the many companies doing offensive netsec.
- core-utility 5y agoNot to mention, they're one of many public. One has to think that there are many more like NSO that don't have huge media publicity around them.
- tut-urut-utut 5y agoHow would that benefit Apple? They are already able to spy on their phone users if ordered by the right three letter agency, they don't need NSO/Pegasus for that. And if they still do so, it would basically be official: "look a phone vendor that develop tools to spy on phone usage". Not a good marketing either.
- mwint 5y agoApple would presumably fix the vulnerabilities, rather than exploit them themselves.
- not2b 5y agoAnd the people at that company who enjoy developing attacks more than they enjoy defending against attacks would just leave and form a new company, that would then sell its attacks to the highest bidder.
- iratewizard 5y agoRed team still develops attacks. They just do it directly for the blue team that fixes them.
- not2b 5y agoBut some people might not decide that this is the career for them. You can't eliminate a threat to iPhone security by buying the company, because you can't enslave its employees.
- iratewizard 5y agoNot really related to what I was saying
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- vlozko 5y agoAssuming NSO would even allow itself to be purchased, various nations would get involved to prevent it. Too many national security issues on the line for them. If anything, Apple would be better off starting up a new office and try to hire individuals within the NSO Group.
- rl3 5y agoWhether poached or acquired, NSO employees are almost certainly already under the influence of Israeli security agencies. If your players in this hypothetical are Apple, NSO, Israel, and USG—each could probably have a pretty convincing list of arguments for and against. I could see it going either way.
- radicaldreamer 5y agoIf by "under the influence" you mean alumni of. They're similar to the staff of military contractors in the US, roving from company to company to use all the skills they learned on the inside for massive profits privately.
- fortran77 5y agoNSO has changed owners several times. They’re now owned by a UK firm called Novalpina Capital.
- ohgodplsno 5y agoHaving wads of cash doesn't mean you can buy any company without their agreement.
- kadoban 5y agoHaving a few trillion dollars makes it a little harder to say no to, but yeah this would not make much sense for Apple.
- Sahbak 5y agoPegasus is legally considered a weapon in Israel and I doubt the government will allow it.
- KoftaBob 5y agoNSO seems to essentially be a front for Israel's Mossad intelligence agency. They get to wash their hands of whatever NSO does by saying "hey that wasn't a nation state spying, they're a private company and we'll punish them for you don't worry." For a more public facing version of this from the CIA, look at their unofficial Venture Capital wing: https://www.iqt.org/about-iqt/ https://www.iqt.org/about-iqt/
- 0xedd 5y agoIt's usually ex intelligence that work in such companies. That being said, that's not how the tools work. Data exfiltration wasn't tracked to the vendor. You must remember the US' interest in spying and conquest is a rather unique trait. Most countries don't go looking for trouble worldwide.
- hibernator149 5y agoHow could you make sure that you haven't just bought a very expensive Trojan Horse?
- kingcharles 5y agoI don't even think NSO is designing these exploits. They are almost certainly buying them in. Apple just needs to outbid NSO.
- pthread_t 5y ago> I don't even think NSO is designing these exploits. That's interesting. Why do you think that?
- kingcharles 5y agoNSO, while having the blessing of a nation state, is still a private company, but has access to some very high-end exploits that would almost certainly require a very large team to develop and to keep ahead of the fixes. It is just more likely they are going the cheaper route of buying the exploits and copy/pasting them into their system. This way they can outbid most others as they are reselling the exploits multiple times to many different nations - the other potential buyers, e.g. intelligence services are buying only for themselves and are limited in their budgets.
- fortran77 5y agoI suspect some are sold by disgruntled employees who are disturbed by the internal culture.
- pcwalton 5y agoThat's a serious accusation to make without evidence. Anyone doing this would rightly face significant jail time.