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Cyber

Israeli spyware found on cellphones of journalists including at New York Times, CNN and AP, also members of royal families and politicians around world, Biden connection

2021-07-19

Those eeeeeevil Joooos are now polluting our mobile phones after infiltrating our previously pure societies!!! At least that’s what news sites around the world are reporting. Even One India has several reports on the story today.

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]

Software, called Pegasus, was developed by Israel's NSO group, a private firm

List of more than 50,000 phone numbers included journalists and politicians

Women on list close to murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Many clients were clustered in 10 countries - Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The BBC adds:

It is not clear where the list came from - or whose phones had actually been hacked.

NSO denies any wrongdoing.

It says the software is intended for use against criminals and terrorists and is made available only to military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies from countries with good human rights records.

In a statement, it said the original investigation which led to the reports, by Paris-based NGO Forbidden Stories and the human rights group Amnesty International, was "full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories".

Update at 8:00 a.m. ET from Fox News:

In a Twitter thread, New York Times reporter Kenneth Vogel explained that the NSO Group had paid the company SKDK, the Democratic-aligned firm of Biden advisor Anita Dunn until late 2019.

He further explained, "NSO GROUP also paid BEACON GLOBAL STRATEGIES (a firm started by JEREMY BASH, an MSNBC analyst who served as CIA & Pentagon chief of staff under OBAMA) until early 2020, @NSOGroup told me last yr. It said @SKDK & Beacon Global ‘provided communications & business strategy advice.’"

"NSO Group has retained TOM CLARE to attack the investigation as ‘speculative & baseless.’@TAClare's boutique defamation firm @clarelockellp also has represented the Russian oligarch OLEG DERIPASKA, Project Veritas (vs the @NYTimes) & Dominion Voting Systems, among other clients," Vogel wrote.

Posted by:Skidmark

#28 I positively love how angry crapple had to be about that.

Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-07-19 17:34

#27 Well, when the FBI needed to crack Apple's security, who did they turn to? Rhetorical question.

Posted by: Procopius2k 2021-07-19 17:33

#26 And Hunter will buy it from China.

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2021-07-19 15:44

#25 /\ They will buy it from Hunter Biden -- that makes it okay.

Posted by: magpie 2021-07-19 15:34

#24 ^ they have import waivers for stuff they are going to use against deplorables

Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-07-19 15:11

#23 I don't know why you (Americans) worry about this "Israeli spyware". No way your current gov is going to buy "made in Israel".

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2021-07-19 14:59

#22 So all nodes lead to Hunter Biden?

Posted by: swksvolFF 2021-07-19 14:53

#21 ^Naw. Most Chinese men are pedos, lazy, cheaters and play mahjong all day.

Posted by: Wren 2021-07-19 14:53

#20 Not unless you're seducing a CPC official with it.

Posted by: Dron66046 2021-07-19 14:34

#19 Will they hack my device if I sign up for Zhihu and Bilibili?

Posted by: Wren 2021-07-19 14:24

#18 Usually, such spying is warranted is all I'm trying to say.

Posted by: Dron66046 2021-07-19 14:12

#17 ^Even on Bilibili? But it's made for very young audience.

Posted by: Wren 2021-07-19 13:57

#16 It's not hacker software for use against mil targets or officials at all. It's a surveillance solution, plugs into whatsapp and the like, like phone taping but for android and iphones. The usual marks are entrenched commies, Soros flunkies, merc journos and corrupt civil servants, and the occasional lawfaring jihad monkey. In most countries it is used on warrant from the interior authorities.

The only people to have a problem with their private chats and anonymous interactions being scrutinized are insurgents and anti-govt people. Now, I understand this can be a problem for conservative Americans these days but it was not always so. These tools were used to great effect by the good guys in many countries. And it's not the only such system available.

Another one made by the Chinese has a nifty 'plant' feature that lets the gummint actually create digital evidence on a user's device, inserting encrypted chat or message records with suitable timestamps. It only works on Chinese social media for now, thankfully.

Posted by: Dron66046 2021-07-19 13:48

#15 I've been told that spy agencies can alter a piece of software to make it look like it came from some particular entity. We're falling into 'Seth Rich' territory, though.

Oddly enough, I don't see the Persians on the list of folks 'affected'.

Posted by: Mullah Richard 2021-07-19 13:08

#14 Shooting bottle rockets down the gutter has a rayciss name I won't repeat here. But I'm smiling thinking about it...

Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-07-19 12:44

#13 In about three hours, right after my first beer!

Posted by: Raj 2021-07-19 12:18

#12 Just for information, Raj, at what time do polite people start launching bottle rockets at the neighbours? I should so hate to be inadvertently rude.

Posted by: trailing wife 2021-07-19 12:07

#11 I'd just like to thank this wonderful trio, all of whom I think were in IDF's SIGINT before they began supplying nation states facing jihad, commies and narco-terrorism, with solutions like Pegasus.

May Jehovah bless those joos,
who helped us make the news.
And well taqiya-ed fcukers,
with commie muck muckers,
were found stabbed through
their necks in their loos.

Posted by: Dron66046 2021-07-19 12:07

#10 I just saw some clown riding a Segway down my street; unfortunately it's too early in the day to launch bottle rockets in the neighborhood.

Posted by: Raj 2021-07-19 11:47

#9 Snowden says this is "going to be the story of the year." I predict that yes, it will, to about the same extent that the Segway "changed everything." Remember how the media wet their pants over that one?

Posted by: M. Murcek 2021-07-19 11:19

#8 Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures of Indicted APT40 Actors Associated with China’s MSS Hainan State Security Department

Posted by: Skidmark 2021-07-19 10:16

#7 Now look for software from ... China

U.S. Government Releases Indictment and Several Advisories Detailing Chinese Cyber Threat Activity

Posted by: Skidmark 2021-07-19 10:13

#6 Beacon Global Strategies
https://bgsdc.com › Team Michael Allen · Jeremy Bash · Andrew Shapiro · Kristin White · Lauren Bedula · Michael Morell · Leon Panetta · Lieutenant General Joseph Anderson (Ret.).

Posted by: Gerthudion Whomoper3485 2021-07-19 08:55

#5 Now look for software from Russia, China, France, Germany, Britain, and Japan.

Posted by: Rob Crawford 2021-07-19 07:35

#4 Massive data leak uncovers human rights abuses using Israeli tech - report

Posted by: Skidmark 2021-07-19 06:37

#3 This merely confirms the unhealthy relationship between politics, journalism and the deep state.

Posted by: Airandee 2021-07-19 06:24

#2 Many clients were clustered in 10 countries - Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Gee, what might they have in common?

It says the software is intended for use against criminals and terrorists

You don't say. Somehow Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, et al ....missed the list?

Posted by: Procopius2k 2021-07-19 06:08

#1 At least they're targeting the right people.

Posted by: Raj 2021-07-19 00:21

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