The NSO Group creates a spyware called Pegasus which gives someone access to the data on a mobile phone. They sell this spyware to government agencies around the world. How is it used and what kind of company is the NSO Group? Thanks to John Scott-Railton and Citizen Lab for investigating this and sharing their research. Sponsors Support for this show comes from Detectify. Try their web vulnerability scanner free. Go to https://detectify.com/?utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=DARKNET Support for this show comes from Ping Identity, champions of identity for the global enterprise. Give your users a loveable login solution. Visit www.pingidentity.com/. Support for this show comes from Blinkist. They offer thousands of condensed non-fiction books, so you can get through books in about 15 minutes. Check out Blinkist.com/DARKNET to start your 7 day free trial and get 25% off when you sign up. For a full list of sources used in this episode and complete transcripts visit https://darknetdiaries.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
McAfee has revealed they would not alert users if their antivirus detects the FBI's Magic Lantern malware, which is used to capture keystrokes on target computers. This raises the question of whether antivirus companies should report on this activity.
Citizen Lab helps protect individuals and non-governmental organizations from digital threats in order to preserve freedom of speech and protect journalists and activists in a democratic society.
The iPhone malware jailbreaks the phone and runs any app, including accessing the microphone, camera, WhatsApp messages, and tracking location without the user's knowledge. It uses two unknown exploits in the iPhone's kernel to perform the jailbreak.
The founders of a mobile security company, Lookout, share how they discovered and reported an exploit in certain mobile networks that was being used by governments to monitor and intercept communications.
NSO's Pegasus software has been notorious for being used by governments and security services to violate human rights. However, there is one known case of Pegasus actually helping, which sheds light on NSO's operations and raises questions of accountability.
Researchers looked into the use of Pegasus spyware in Mexico and found potential links between the use of the software and lobbying efforts against a soda tax.
The Pegasus software has been used for human rights abuses by governments around the world. The operators of this technology have behaved like thugs, and couldn't resist sexual taunts while attempting to infect people, leading to a broader issue of technology being in the wrong hands.
The use of targeted spyware has a troubling nexus with physical violence, adding a new dimension to the concept of find, fix, and finish. Recent allegations about the use of spyware against Jamal Khashoggi highlight the dangerous consequences of this technology.
Tech companies and civil society organizations are calling on a US judge to avoid dismissing a lawsuit brought against Israeli hacking firm NSO, in a case that could provide insights into the company's practices. NSO claims its services are intended to be used solely for crime and terror investigations, but critics say its technology has been used to target political dissidents and journalists.
After the Pegasus Project report suggested that NSO's Pegasus spyware had targeted over 50,000 potential targets, the company released a statement saying that the report had complete disregard of the facts and that they will no longer be responding to media inquiries. NSO also denied having any list of 50,000 phone numbers, stating that each customer runs their own instance and infrastructure for Pegasus to run and that there's no central repository of data.
NSO Group, the company behind the controversial Pegasus software, has been accused of engaging in unethical behavior. The accusation comes after reports emerged that Black Cube, a private intelligence firm, spied on Citizen Lab and lawyers representing victims of the Pegasus software.
The host is taking a break for two weeks, but will return with another episode in four weeks. He thanks JSR for his research work at Citizen Lab and mentions attending a hacker support group called Anonymous Anonymous.