[HN Gopher] Emmanuel Macron identified in leaked Pegasus project...
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       Emmanuel Macron identified in leaked Pegasus project data
        
       Author : SalimoS
       Score  : 83 points
       Date   : 2021-07-20 20:50 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.theguardian.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.theguardian.com)
        
       | hanselot wrote:
       | Inb4 fifty Liberal agents are deployed to debunk this.
        
       | behindai wrote:
       | So, who stands behind the hack? Scary Russians?
        
         | boomboomsubban wrote:
         | There wasn't necessarily a hack, I don't think how the
         | information leaked has been shared.
        
       | zrth wrote:
       | This is great news. The more people in power have been hit, the
       | more repercussions we can hope for.
       | 
       | One possible way to force a bit of scrutiny upon NSO group would
       | be to crowdfund an Pegasus subscription and use it against
       | Netanyahu.
       | 
       | Any serious suggestions what we can do to ensure that in the long
       | run there will be less and not more "Hacking for hire" companies
       | lending their tools for use against journalists and the
       | opposition?
       | 
       | Shit will really hit the fan when the "ransomware as a service"
       | discovers the "targeted surveillance as a service" business
       | model.. Interesting times to be alive.
        
         | MeinBlutIstBlau wrote:
         | > The more people in power have been hit, the more
         | repercussions we can hope for.
         | 
         | This reminds me of a story I heard at a presentation when
         | working at a bank. A politician was going through a closing
         | process for property he was purchasing. He had an issue and
         | found out that the banks automatically tac on PMI for his type
         | of loan, regardless of loan to value ratios.
         | 
         | A year later, their state passed legislation saying PMI cannot
         | be forced on mortgaged loans with certain ratios and must be
         | disclosed before closing.
         | 
         | Funny how things work :)
        
           | mixmastamyk wrote:
           | Had to look up, PMI = Private mortgage insurance.
        
       | greatgib wrote:
       | This looks like a shocking news, but there are probably hundreds
       | of countries that are trying to tap on the French and other
       | presidents.
       | 
       | This is just the moroccan gov that is too incompetent to do it by
       | themselves but have to use a third party consulting firm for the
       | job.
       | 
       | And so, there will be no consequence, because all the other
       | governments know very well that they are dirty too, so there will
       | just be a few soft offense word and then trying to have the
       | population forget as fast as possible...
        
         | peteretep wrote:
         | > This looks like a shocking news
         | 
         | It _is_ shocking news: the Israelis are essentially selling
         | munitions to the Moroccans explicitly for use against the
         | French
        
       | mtrovo wrote:
       | > Robert Malley, a longtime American diplomat who was chief
       | negotiator on the US-Iran deal, and who appears to have been
       | selected as a person of interest by Morocco in 2019. NSO has said
       | its government clients are prevented from deploying its software
       | against US numbers because it has been made "technically
       | impossible".
       | 
       | Is there more info about why this is technically impossible or is
       | it just their PR way of saying "sorry, the day we do this we're
       | screwed as a company"?
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | axiosgunnar wrote:
         | I would assume it's a deliberate ,,if number.startsWith("+1")"
         | precisely so nobody ends up using it on a US politician or
         | whatever who then goes on a rampage.
        
           | notquitehuman wrote:
           | Until they release some sort of irrefutable proof, why give
           | them the benefit of the doubt? Their track record warrants
           | assuming dishonesty.
        
             | boomboomsubban wrote:
             | Everyone cares more about the optics of spying on US
             | citizens than actually spying on US citizens. Like in this
             | example, without the convenient excuse of "it's impossible"
             | the headline likely would have been "Pegasus Project spies
             | on US diplomat and French President."
        
           | ywain wrote:
           | I like to imagine that some developer commented out that line
           | to allow for spying on Canadian persons and left a "TODO:
           | find better way to identify US numbers" that was never fixed.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | peteretep wrote:
             | That's hilarious, although I suspect "don't hack the US"
             | means "don't hack five eyes" in practice
        
         | mike_d wrote:
         | NSO effectively operates a SaaS platform for target
         | exploitation and collection. They can easily add a restriction
         | that prevents specific phone numbers from being targeted.
         | 
         | My guess is that such a restriction is in place to meet
         | contractual obligations. If you weaponize an exploit against US
         | targets, you'll never get a US based broker to sell further
         | exploits to you.
        
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       (page generated 2021-07-20 23:01 UTC)