5 ms·

Researchers confirm two journalists were hacked with Paragon spyware

216 points by moose44 1y ago

GHanku 1y ago
[dead]
- anordal 1y ago
  Ah, much better source: iOS is the answer to where the vulnerability was – right in the headline. I could not find that by searching for the usual keywords in the original post.
amarcheschi 1y ago
I would like to add that Paragon disagrees with COPASIR: (article in italian) https://www.fanpage.it/politica/paragon-smentisce-il-copasir-abbiamo-rescisso-il-contratto-perche-il-governo-non-vuole-scoprire-chi-ha-spiato-fanpage/ https://www.fanpage.it/politica/paragon-smentisce-il-copasir... They offered to give some information about who was surveilled by whom, but not surprisingly the Italian government refused (it was used by 2 secret service agencies in italy). At this point, Paragon stopped giving its access to Italian agencies (spying on journalists is forbidden by Paragon'S tos). COPASIR say they are the ones who stopped the commercial relationships though, so it is clear as water that at least one party isn't telling the truth
- rnhmjoj 1y ago
  That the government would try to cover this up does not really surprise anyone. What's more concerning is the fact that the multipartisan committee whose sole purpose is to oversee the intelligence agencies has essentially admitted to having no clue or are lying to cover the government.
  - amarcheschi 1y ago
    Yeah, that's worrying because they might be lying and they're the one who are supposed to say the truth
- elcritch 1y ago
  And of course the news headline I saw first mentioned nothing about Italy but rather “US backed Israeli company hacks European journalists!”. Yeah gotta love the clickbait titles.
  - nashashmi 1y ago
    > Two European journalists were hacked using government spyware made by Israeli surveillance tech provider Paragon, new research has confirmed. The first line of the article is effectively the headline you saw. But this headline doesn’t mention Israel or the US or the European journalists
    - elcritch 1y ago
      Yep, but the other article on the front page covering the exact same topic AFAICT does include that in the headline. I initially thought this was the same article and that the title had been changed.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
shironandonon_ 1y ago
Oh thank goodness only two journalists were affected. wink
engels_gibs 1y ago
Lets rewrite this in the way the media would report if it was russian (or chinese) software: "Russia continues to undermine western democracies and infiltrate our media and public institutions. In the latest development, Putin is using russian hacking software to spy on our citizens. This shows that Russia and Chinese software continue to be a threat to civil liberties everywhere. In other news, 20 hamas-linked students were arrested for organizing a protest against peaceful israeli intervention in the Middle East..."
mycall 1y ago
This is a differenet Paragon than Paragon Software who make file system drivers?

216 points by moose44 1y ago

GHanku 1y ago

[dead]

anordal 1y ago
Ah, much better source: iOS is the answer to where the vulnerability was – right in the headline. I could not find that by searching for the usual keywords in the original post.

amarcheschi 1y ago

I would like to add that Paragon disagrees with COPASIR: (article in italian) https://www.fanpage.it/politica/paragon-smentisce-il-copasir-abbiamo-rescisso-il-contratto-perche-il-governo-non-vuole-scoprire-chi-ha-spiato-fanpage/ https://www.fanpage.it/politica/paragon-smentisce-il-copasir... They offered to give some information about who was surveilled by whom, but not surprisingly the Italian government refused (it was used by 2 secret service agencies in italy). At this point, Paragon stopped giving its access to Italian agencies (spying on journalists is forbidden by Paragon'S tos). COPASIR say they are the ones who stopped the commercial relationships though, so it is clear as water that at least one party isn't telling the truth

rnhmjoj 1y ago
That the government would try to cover this up does not really surprise anyone. What's more concerning is the fact that the multipartisan committee whose sole purpose is to oversee the intelligence agencies has essentially admitted to having no clue or are lying to cover the government.
- amarcheschi 1y ago
  Yeah, that's worrying because they might be lying and they're the one who are supposed to say the truth
elcritch 1y ago
And of course the news headline I saw first mentioned nothing about Italy but rather “US backed Israeli company hacks European journalists!”. Yeah gotta love the clickbait titles.
- nashashmi 1y ago
  > Two European journalists were hacked using government spyware made by Israeli surveillance tech provider Paragon, new research has confirmed. The first line of the article is effectively the headline you saw. But this headline doesn’t mention Israel or the US or the European journalists
  - elcritch 1y ago
    Yep, but the other article on the front page covering the exact same topic AFAICT does include that in the headline. I initially thought this was the same article and that the title had been changed.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

shironandonon_ 1y ago

Oh thank goodness only two journalists were affected. wink

engels_gibs 1y ago

Lets rewrite this in the way the media would report if it was russian (or chinese) software: "Russia continues to undermine western democracies and infiltrate our media and public institutions. In the latest development, Putin is using russian hacking software to spy on our citizens. This shows that Russia and Chinese software continue to be a threat to civil liberties everywhere. In other news, 20 hamas-linked students were arrested for organizing a protest against peaceful israeli intervention in the Middle East..."

mycall 1y ago

This is a differenet Paragon than Paragon Software who make file system drivers?