this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
559 points (98.9% liked)

World News

38969 readers
1959 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News [email protected]

Politics [email protected]

World Politics [email protected]


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 
  • Russia appears to be targeting journalists with spyware known as Pegasus.

  • Pegasus is a "zero-click" software, hacking phones by sending texts that don't need to be opened.

  • The software has targeted dozens of journalists, activists, and politicians in recent years.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 109 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Pegasus is an Israeli product, are they selling it to Russia?

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago

Why not? Do you think US donations come with conditions?

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah either something else is involved here or Israel is indeed selling Pegasus to literally any government that requests it. Let's not forget that NSO group is state funded so those deals clearly do have the approval from the Israeli government.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Nothing to worry folks, here's what NSO said when it was used to target Khashoggi's inner circle as he was murdered and dismembered in the Saudi consulate:

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

[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago

One of the key reasons for Israel's reluctance to help Ukraine win the war militarily is simple: It still works closely with Russia.

Russia is important for Israel's military operations in neighboring Syria, where Israel has been carrying out airstrikes against Iran-backed militias, mainly those of Hezbollah.

https://kyivindependent.com/on-support-for-ukraine-israel-performs-precarious-balancing-act-between-security-interests/

[–] [email protected] 48 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Now inform everyone else that other countries are targeting with pegasus

*edit: spelling

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (5 children)

They do, and they’ve shared the counter measure (lockdown mode) with the world.

If a nation state will individually target someone, they don’t need to doom scroll on insta (nor do they need to). Locking down the phone to the bare minimum for these kind of people is the appropriate level of response.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How is this a solution? 🤔 and whats the "solution" for android?

load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago

What are the comments in here.. Lol. Anyone able to give a level-headed take on this article/topic? Cheers

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

At this rate an iPhone will just be Pegasus all the way down. 76 nation states and their rogue black ops will battle for pegasupremacy.

He who hacks harder wins.

(The above is not based on any fact)

But, seriously... 3 (known) years later and Apple doesn't have a fix for this?

Almost as if it's intentionally unpatched

Edit: fanboys are a tough crowd. Gheezus.

[–] [email protected] 65 points 1 year ago (17 children)

It's not like Pegasus is exploiting a single bug in iOS, there are probably hundreds of different ways Pegasus got onto phones over the years. Known security bugs get patched.

Pegasus isn't a single piece of software, it's a big toolkit, constantly updated. It's a race similar to ads vs. ad blockers.

It's not a problem exclusive to iOS either. Pegasus works on Android phones as well.

load more comments (17 replies)
[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

But, seriously... 3 (known) years later and Apple doesn't have a fix for this?

Almost as if it's intentionally unpatched

Pegasus constantly adapts, evolves, and changes overtime with how it works. Pegasus 3 years ago isn't the same as Pegasus today. Once a vulnerability is discovered and fixed, they find a new one to exploit and take advantage of. Its a constant battle.

I'm not a big fan of Apple at all, but credit where its due, they have made a pretty good effort to patch Pegasus vulnerabilities whenever they come about, plus have added features like Lockdown Mode to help protect against it even further, etc. This article is literally about Apple even warning journalists to be cautious of it.

Saying Apple is intentionally allowing Pegasus to happen, like you're claiming, is honestly laughable with all things considered.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

Make it preinstalled and put the hackers out of job. Taps forehead

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Obviously we need multiple adversarial LLMs battling this out. Humans are not solving this problem.

load more comments
view more: next ›