6 ms·

Global Spyware Scandal: Exposing Pegasus

92 points by 2bluesc 4y ago

danuker 4y ago
> We're sorry, but this video is not available. Boo for the imaginary-line-based fragmentation of the web.
- yucky 4y ago
  Weird, it's available and free on their streaming app.
  - iinnPP 4y ago
    danuker appears to be indicating a geo based block.
- meltyness 4y ago
  To summarize part 1: - Journalists investigate 2016-2020 leak of phone numbers targeted by NSO advanced spyware - reveals that it was not primarily remotable exploits, but rather involved social engineering in many cases - uncover victims near Khashoggi, but only after the killing - uncover possibly corrupt use by the Mexican government, as well as a brief narrative on operator-side - uncover use in Azerbaijan against journalists
  - scyzoryk_xyz 4y ago
    Here in Poland used by political party with public funding to strategically spy on and sabotage opposition party (bypassing actual real intelligence agencies). What strikes me is how Pegasus wasn’t really used by sophisticated intelligence agencies but as a product by actors adjacent to or below that level of access. All of this in my mind harkens back to that fantastic Coppola film „The Conversation”. It is inevitable that scummy companies and specialists will always emerge with a well priced product or tool for getting some shitty job done.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- VWWHFSfQ 4y ago
  I'm not sure why they do that but I'm guessing it's because you don't pay taxes to support PBS. I've run into similar visiting various UK public broadcaster websites where I can't watch the videos and it's always mildly annoying to have to fire up my VPN.
- smartbit 4y ago
  Indeed, boo. Neither is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZVj1_SE4Mo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZVj1_SE4Mo available. With a VPN into California both work fine though.
iinnPP 4y ago
You don't see the term spyware much anymore. I suppose that is the result of almost everything being spyware now. Also, how would you even go about creating a spyware scanner given the OS is itself spyware? Well it turns out that my definition of spyware misses "covert" (according to Google search top results). As if that matters. When I dig deeper, that "covert" qualifier is nowhere to be found. In some definitions you find exactly what you expect, including a definition from a virus scanner domain. There is no specific requirement for spyware to be "covert." I would increase the qualifiers to include covert, mostly-monopolistic (is there a word for this?), or not immediately apparent to the average IQ. Because I am far more worried about the non-covert spyware and what it is doing to humanity.
- fsflover 4y ago
  > Also, how would you even go about creating a spyware scanner given the OS is itself spyware? Not mine.
- g_p 4y ago
  > You don't see the term spyware much anymore. I suppose that is the result of almost everything being spyware now. Likewise for "adware" - it seems the rise of smartphones heralded a normalisation of practices which (on the desktop) got you branded as "adware" and removed by AV/malware removal tools. Now it's accepted and normalised on any and all platform to ship both ad and spyware (i.e. detailed telemetry and cloud storage of data by default, and use of long lived or pervasive unique identifiers)
- BlueTemplar 4y ago
  "Monopolistic" works too. 100% market share is not required for anti-trust action (and would be an impossible bar anyway), many jurisdictions don't even have a >50% requirement.
  - thfuran 4y ago
    I think the bar for monopoly power is 25% market share in the UK.
- 4y ago
permalac 4y ago
I thought this was already covered when EU found several government entities using it against political adversaries. Also Cailou IIRC
numeromancer 4y ago
> Pegasus is spyware developed by the _Israeli_ cyber-arms company NSO Group that can be covertly installed on mobile phones (and other devices) running most versions of iOS and Android.
- grzaks 4y ago
  And?
  - factsarelolz 4y ago
    A lot of Offensive Security weapons are born in Israel. A simple observation. Take it as you wish.
    - oztamir 4y ago
      That’s true, but a lot of Cyber security products are also made in Israel (Most of Microsoft’s Defender products are developed here, as well as Israel-born companies such as Palo Alto Networks, Checkpoint, SentinalOne, and countless other startups). The fact is that the tech scene in Israel is very much Cybersecurity oriented and as such it’s logical that there will be lots of companies doing both sides of this.
grzaks 4y ago
Pegasus was also used in Poland by the "Prawo i sprawiedliwość" ruling party (in eng. "Law and justice" sic!) to spy on the head of the opposition electoral staff during 2019 election.
- voytec 4y ago
  The PiS regime allegedly spied on more than just senator Krzysztof Brejza with Pegasus. Pasting from my first ever HN comment: - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/17/more-polish-opposition-figures-found-to-have-been-targeted-by-pegasus-spyware https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/17/more-polish-op... - https://democratic-europe.eu/2022/01/18/citizen-lab-there-is-an-evidence-that-a-polish-opposition-senator-was-hacked-with-spyware/ https://democratic-europe.eu/2022/01/18/citizen-lab-there-is...
  - keneda7 4y ago
    Its interesting in today world. We have had several major spying releases/scandals in the last decade and not much has really come of them (at least in the US). The last several our general population has shrugged off and went right back to using all their devices/services. It seems people just don't seem to care much about their privacy when it comes to governments spying. I don't have much faith there will be any serious consequences in Poland.
    - hulitu 4y ago
      You cannot fight government propaganda.
tim-in-stl 4y ago
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZVj1_SE4Mo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZVj1_SE4Mo

92 points by 2bluesc 4y ago

danuker 4y ago

> We're sorry, but this video is not available. Boo for the imaginary-line-based fragmentation of the web.

yucky 4y ago
Weird, it's available and free on their streaming app.
- iinnPP 4y ago
  danuker appears to be indicating a geo based block.
meltyness 4y ago
To summarize part 1: - Journalists investigate 2016-2020 leak of phone numbers targeted by NSO advanced spyware - reveals that it was not primarily remotable exploits, but rather involved social engineering in many cases - uncover victims near Khashoggi, but only after the killing - uncover possibly corrupt use by the Mexican government, as well as a brief narrative on operator-side - uncover use in Azerbaijan against journalists
- scyzoryk_xyz 4y ago
  Here in Poland used by political party with public funding to strategically spy on and sabotage opposition party (bypassing actual real intelligence agencies). What strikes me is how Pegasus wasn’t really used by sophisticated intelligence agencies but as a product by actors adjacent to or below that level of access. All of this in my mind harkens back to that fantastic Coppola film „The Conversation”. It is inevitable that scummy companies and specialists will always emerge with a well priced product or tool for getting some shitty job done.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
VWWHFSfQ 4y ago
I'm not sure why they do that but I'm guessing it's because you don't pay taxes to support PBS. I've run into similar visiting various UK public broadcaster websites where I can't watch the videos and it's always mildly annoying to have to fire up my VPN.
smartbit 4y ago
Indeed, boo. Neither is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZVj1_SE4Mo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZVj1_SE4Mo available. With a VPN into California both work fine though.

iinnPP 4y ago

You don't see the term spyware much anymore. I suppose that is the result of almost everything being spyware now. Also, how would you even go about creating a spyware scanner given the OS is itself spyware? Well it turns out that my definition of spyware misses "covert" (according to Google search top results). As if that matters. When I dig deeper, that "covert" qualifier is nowhere to be found. In some definitions you find exactly what you expect, including a definition from a virus scanner domain. There is no specific requirement for spyware to be "covert." I would increase the qualifiers to include covert, mostly-monopolistic (is there a word for this?), or not immediately apparent to the average IQ. Because I am far more worried about the non-covert spyware and what it is doing to humanity.

fsflover 4y ago
> Also, how would you even go about creating a spyware scanner given the OS is itself spyware? Not mine.
g_p 4y ago
> You don't see the term spyware much anymore. I suppose that is the result of almost everything being spyware now. Likewise for "adware" - it seems the rise of smartphones heralded a normalisation of practices which (on the desktop) got you branded as "adware" and removed by AV/malware removal tools. Now it's accepted and normalised on any and all platform to ship both ad and spyware (i.e. detailed telemetry and cloud storage of data by default, and use of long lived or pervasive unique identifiers)
BlueTemplar 4y ago
"Monopolistic" works too. 100% market share is not required for anti-trust action (and would be an impossible bar anyway), many jurisdictions don't even have a >50% requirement.
- thfuran 4y ago
  I think the bar for monopoly power is 25% market share in the UK.
4y ago

permalac 4y ago

I thought this was already covered when EU found several government entities using it against political adversaries. Also Cailou IIRC

numeromancer 4y ago

> Pegasus is spyware developed by the _Israeli_ cyber-arms company NSO Group that can be covertly installed on mobile phones (and other devices) running most versions of iOS and Android.

grzaks 4y ago
And?
- factsarelolz 4y ago
  A lot of Offensive Security weapons are born in Israel. A simple observation. Take it as you wish.
  - oztamir 4y ago
    That’s true, but a lot of Cyber security products are also made in Israel (Most of Microsoft’s Defender products are developed here, as well as Israel-born companies such as Palo Alto Networks, Checkpoint, SentinalOne, and countless other startups). The fact is that the tech scene in Israel is very much Cybersecurity oriented and as such it’s logical that there will be lots of companies doing both sides of this.

grzaks 4y ago

Pegasus was also used in Poland by the "Prawo i sprawiedliwość" ruling party (in eng. "Law and justice" sic!) to spy on the head of the opposition electoral staff during 2019 election.

voytec 4y ago
The PiS regime allegedly spied on more than just senator Krzysztof Brejza with Pegasus. Pasting from my first ever HN comment: - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/17/more-polish-opposition-figures-found-to-have-been-targeted-by-pegasus-spyware https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/17/more-polish-op... - https://democratic-europe.eu/2022/01/18/citizen-lab-there-is-an-evidence-that-a-polish-opposition-senator-was-hacked-with-spyware/ https://democratic-europe.eu/2022/01/18/citizen-lab-there-is...
- keneda7 4y ago
  Its interesting in today world. We have had several major spying releases/scandals in the last decade and not much has really come of them (at least in the US). The last several our general population has shrugged off and went right back to using all their devices/services. It seems people just don't seem to care much about their privacy when it comes to governments spying. I don't have much faith there will be any serious consequences in Poland.
  - hulitu 4y ago
    You cannot fight government propaganda.

tim-in-stl 4y ago

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZVj1_SE4Mo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZVj1_SE4Mo