Pegasus and other spyware

mickeyrat

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2021/nso-spyware-pegasus-cellphones/

Private Israeli
spyware used
to hack
cellphones
of journalists,
activists
worldwide

NSO Group’s Pegasus
spyware, licensed to
governments around
the globe, can infect
phones without a click

9:30

An investigation by a consortium of media organizations has found that military-grade spyware licensed by an Israeli firm has been used to hack smartphones. (Jon Gerberg/The Washington Post)

By Dana Priest

, 

Craig Timberg

and 

Souad Mekhennet

 

Updated July 18 at 1:33 p.m.Originally published July 18, 2021

Military-grade spyware licensed by an Israeli firm to governments for tracking terrorists and criminals was used in attempted and successful hacks of 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, business executives and two women close to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to an investigation by The Washington Post and 16 media partners.

The phones appeared on a list of more than 50,000 numbers that are concentrated in countries known to engage in surveillance of their citizens and also known to have been clients of the Israeli firm, NSO Group, a worldwide leader in the growing and largely unregulated private spyware industry, the investigation found.

article is long......

brianlux

^^^ Not that anyone would have any interest in tracking me, but that's another reason I refuse to have a smartphone.

Spunkie

^ It's useful if you need results of your sti tests when Dr hours are closed

mickeyrat

Pegasus spyware used to hack U.S. diplomats working abroad  https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/12/03/israel-nso-pegasus-hack-us-diplomats/ 

 Pegasus spyware used to hack U.S. diplomats working abroad

By Craig Timberg, Drew Harwell and Ellen Nakashima
December 03 at 12:48 PM EST
Apple alerted 11 U.S. diplomats that their iPhones had been hacked in recent months by spyware from NSO Group, an Israeli-based company that helps government clients in dozens of countries secretly steal files, eavesdrop on conversations and track the movements of its targets, according to people familiar with the notifications.
The news, first reported by Reuters and confirmed by The Washington Post, comes a month after U.S. officials blacklisted the NSO Group amid allegations that its foreign government clients had enabled hacking against embassy employees, political activists, human rights workers and others. These and other actions come after the July publication of The Pegasus Project, an investigation by The Washington Post and 16 other news organizations into the activities of NSO Group.
At least some of those whose phones were penetrated by Pegasus were U.S. citizens, according to people familiar with Apple’s notifications, who added that the attacks were focused on U.S. officials working in Uganda or elsewhere in East Africa. Last month the company began alerting people who had been potentially compromised by a known Pegasus exploit called “FORCEDENTRY” and sued the company seeking to prevent it from using Apple products in the future.
Pegasus can be delivered remotely without any action, such as clicking on a link, or notification.
NSO said in a statement Friday that it had suspended accounts with clients, which it declined to name, because of the reports that Pegasus had been used to target U.S. diplomats. The Israeli-based company has long been deferential to U.S. interests and said that Pegasus was not technically capable of hacking phones with U.S.-based +1 phone numbers. It is not known whether the diplomats alerted of intrusion had phones based in foreign countries or the United States.
“Once the inquiry was received, and before any investigation under our compliance policy, we have decided to immediately terminate relevant customers’ access to the system, due to the severity of the allegations," said NSO spokesperson Oded Hershkovitz. "To this point, we haven’t received any information nor the phone numbers, nor any indication that NSO’s tools were used in this case. On top of the independent investigation, NSO will cooperate with any relevant government authority and present the full information we will have.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

mickeyrat

  https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/interactive/2021/hanan-elatr-phone-pegasus/ 

 

A UAE agency put
Pegasus spyware
on phone of Jamal
Khashoggi’s wife
months before
his murder, new
forensics show

The new analysis challenges NSO
claims that the murdered journalist’s
wife, Hanan Elatr, ‘was not a target’

 6:21

Hanan Elatr is haunted by the killing of her husband. Now, she has learned that a UAE agency put Pegasus spyware on her phone months before his murder. (Jon Gerberg/The Post)

By Dana Priest

Dec. 21, 2021

217

Emirates flight attendant Hanan Elatr surrendered her two Android cellphones, laptop and passwords when security agents surrounded her at the Dubai airport. They drove her, blindfolded and in handcuffs, to an interrogation cell on the edge of the city, she said. There, she was questioned all night and into the morning about her fiance, Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

continues....