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" The Surveillance States" by Ronan Farrow
Solés phone had been infected with Pegasus, a spyware technology designed by NSO Group, an Israeli firm, which can extract the contents of a phone, giving access to its texts and photographs, or activate its camera and microphone to provide real-time surveillanceexposing, say, confidential meetings. Pegasus is useful for law enforcement seeking criminals, or for authoritarians looking to quash dissent. Solé had been hacked in the weeks before he joined the European Parliament, replacing a colleague who had been imprisoned for pro-independence activities. Theres been a clear political and judicial persecution of people and elected representatives, Solé told me, by using these dirty things, these dirty methodologies.
In Catalonia, more than sixty phonesowned by Catalan politicians, lawyers, and activists in Spain and across Europehave been targeted using Pegasus. This is the largest forensically documented cluster of such attacks and infections on record. Among the victims are three members of the European Parliament, including Solé. Catalan politicians believe that the likely perpetrators of the hacking campaign are Spanish officials, and the Citizen Labs analysis suggests that the Spanish government has used Pegasus. A former NSO employee confirmed that the company has an account in Spain. (Government agencies did not respond to requests for comment.) The results of the Citizen Labs investigation are being disclosed for the first time in this article. I spoke with more than forty of the targeted individuals, and the conversations revealed an atmosphere of paranoia and mistrust. Solé said, That kind of surveillance in democratic countries and democratic statesI mean, its unbelievable.
Commercial spyware has grown into an industry estimated to be worth twelve billion dollars. It is largely unregulated and increasingly controversial. In recent years, investigations by the Citizen Lab and Amnesty International have revealed the presence of Pegasus on the phones of politicians, activists, and dissidents under repressive regimes. An analysis by Forensic Architecture, a research group at the University of London, has linked Pegasus to three hundred acts of physical violence. It has been used to target members of Rwandas opposition party and journalists exposing corruption in El Salvador. In Mexico, it appeared on the phones of several people close to the reporter Javier Valdez Cárdenas, who was murdered after investigating drug cartels. Around the time that Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia approved the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a longtime critic, Pegasus was allegedly used to monitor phones belonging to Khashoggis associates, possibly facilitating the killing, in 2018. (Bin Salman has denied involvement, and NSO said, in a statement, Our technology was not associated in any way with the heinous murder.) Further reporting through a collaboration of news outlets known as the Pegasus Project has reinforced the links between NSO Group and anti-democratic states. But there is evidence that Pegasus is being used in at least forty-five countries, and it and similar tools have been purchased by law-enforcement agencies in the United States and across Europe. Cristin Flynn Goodwin, a Microsoft executive who has led the companys efforts to fight spyware, told me, The big, dirty secret is that governments are buying this stuffnot just authoritarian governments but all types of governments.
NSO Group is perhaps the most successful, controversial, and influential firm in a generation of Israeli startups that have made the country the center of the spyware industry. I first interviewed Shalev Hulio, NSO Groups C.E.O., in 2019, and since then I have had access to NSO Groups staff, offices, and technology. The company is in a state of contradiction and crisis. Its programmers speak with pride about the use of their software in criminal investigationsNSO claims that Pegasus is sold only to law-enforcement and intelligence agenciesbut also of the illicit thrill of compromising technology platforms. The company has been valued at more than a billion dollars. But now it is contending with debt, battling an array of corporate backers, and, according to industry observers, faltering in its long-standing efforts to sell its products to U.S. law enforcement, in part through an American branch, Westbridge Technologies. It also faces numerous lawsuits in many countries, brought by Meta (formerly Facebook), by Apple, and by individuals who have been hacked by NSO. The company said in its statement that it had been targeted by a number of politically motivated advocacy organizations, many with well-known anti-Israel biases, and added that we have repeatedly cooperated with governmental investigations, where credible allegations merit, and have learned from each of these findings and reports, and improved the safeguards in our technologies. Hulio told me, I never imagined in my life that this company would be so famous. . . . I never imagined that we would be so successful. He paused. And I never imagined that it would be so controversial.
In Catalonia, more than sixty phonesowned by Catalan politicians, lawyers, and activists in Spain and across Europehave been targeted using Pegasus. This is the largest forensically documented cluster of such attacks and infections on record. Among the victims are three members of the European Parliament, including Solé. Catalan politicians believe that the likely perpetrators of the hacking campaign are Spanish officials, and the Citizen Labs analysis suggests that the Spanish government has used Pegasus. A former NSO employee confirmed that the company has an account in Spain. (Government agencies did not respond to requests for comment.) The results of the Citizen Labs investigation are being disclosed for the first time in this article. I spoke with more than forty of the targeted individuals, and the conversations revealed an atmosphere of paranoia and mistrust. Solé said, That kind of surveillance in democratic countries and democratic statesI mean, its unbelievable.
Commercial spyware has grown into an industry estimated to be worth twelve billion dollars. It is largely unregulated and increasingly controversial. In recent years, investigations by the Citizen Lab and Amnesty International have revealed the presence of Pegasus on the phones of politicians, activists, and dissidents under repressive regimes. An analysis by Forensic Architecture, a research group at the University of London, has linked Pegasus to three hundred acts of physical violence. It has been used to target members of Rwandas opposition party and journalists exposing corruption in El Salvador. In Mexico, it appeared on the phones of several people close to the reporter Javier Valdez Cárdenas, who was murdered after investigating drug cartels. Around the time that Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia approved the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a longtime critic, Pegasus was allegedly used to monitor phones belonging to Khashoggis associates, possibly facilitating the killing, in 2018. (Bin Salman has denied involvement, and NSO said, in a statement, Our technology was not associated in any way with the heinous murder.) Further reporting through a collaboration of news outlets known as the Pegasus Project has reinforced the links between NSO Group and anti-democratic states. But there is evidence that Pegasus is being used in at least forty-five countries, and it and similar tools have been purchased by law-enforcement agencies in the United States and across Europe. Cristin Flynn Goodwin, a Microsoft executive who has led the companys efforts to fight spyware, told me, The big, dirty secret is that governments are buying this stuffnot just authoritarian governments but all types of governments.
NSO Group is perhaps the most successful, controversial, and influential firm in a generation of Israeli startups that have made the country the center of the spyware industry. I first interviewed Shalev Hulio, NSO Groups C.E.O., in 2019, and since then I have had access to NSO Groups staff, offices, and technology. The company is in a state of contradiction and crisis. Its programmers speak with pride about the use of their software in criminal investigationsNSO claims that Pegasus is sold only to law-enforcement and intelligence agenciesbut also of the illicit thrill of compromising technology platforms. The company has been valued at more than a billion dollars. But now it is contending with debt, battling an array of corporate backers, and, according to industry observers, faltering in its long-standing efforts to sell its products to U.S. law enforcement, in part through an American branch, Westbridge Technologies. It also faces numerous lawsuits in many countries, brought by Meta (formerly Facebook), by Apple, and by individuals who have been hacked by NSO. The company said in its statement that it had been targeted by a number of politically motivated advocacy organizations, many with well-known anti-Israel biases, and added that we have repeatedly cooperated with governmental investigations, where credible allegations merit, and have learned from each of these findings and reports, and improved the safeguards in our technologies. Hulio told me, I never imagined in my life that this company would be so famous. . . . I never imagined that we would be so successful. He paused. And I never imagined that it would be so controversial.
(Small note: The New Yorker's major articles regularly have different magazine and online titles.) Anyway, this is the same article referenced by Rachel Maddow this past week. It's an important article and a first look at the emergence of mercenary surveillance and how it stands alongside state surveillance.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/04/25/how-democracies-spy-on-their-citizens
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" The Surveillance States" by Ronan Farrow (Original Post)
ancianita
Apr 2022
OP
I don't think so, or it would have been noted somewhere in or around the report.
ancianita
Apr 2022
#6
niyad
(113,336 posts)1. KNR and bookmarking. For later.
ancianita
(36,081 posts)2. Understood. It is long and dense, but important.
Uncle Joe
(58,366 posts)3. Kicked and recommended.
Thanks for the thread ancianita.
Thanks for all of yours, too!
I don't know about others here, but based on past books I've read, and this piece, I'm thinking too much of the world's cyber types have made the Internet a dark, creepy place. I still hold out hope that the good, younger people of the world will come out on the other side of this.
?w=584
Haggis 4 Breakfast
(1,454 posts)5. Is this an excerpt from a new book from Ronan Farrow ?
His books are so well-written, meticulously fact-checked and thoroughly-referenced. It's time for another book from him.
ancianita
(36,081 posts)6. I don't think so, or it would have been noted somewhere in or around the report.
Not that it wouldn't be part of some book, but so far I don't have a clue if he's got one in the works.
Haggis 4 Breakfast
(1,454 posts)7. Just my wishful thinking . . .