Category Archives: human rights

Facebook must unblock NSO Group employee’s account, Israeli court rules

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An Israeli court has ordered Facebook to unblock the account of an employee of NSO Group after a complaint from the software surveillance vendor, according to officials at both companies. It is the latest twist in a broader, high-stakes legal battle between Facebook and NSO Group, an Israeli company that sells hacking tools to governments. In a lawsuit last year, Facebook accused NSO Group, through its custom malware, of being complicit in a hack last year of 1,400 mobile devices running WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging platform. NSO Group has denied the allegations. NSO Group employees had filed a petition in November asking an Israeli court to lift a block that Facebook had placed on their accounts. The NSO Group personnel accused Facebook of retaliating against them after Facebook‘s suit, which alleged that NSO Group had violated U.S. anti-hacking laws. Facebook said disabling certain NSO Group accounts was warranted for security reasons. A Facebook spokesperson said Tuesday the company […]

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Trend Micro finds new mobile malware masquerading as a chat app

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A new kind of mobile malware that can steal victim’s personal information, including files and victims’ location data is hidden under the guise of a chat app, according to new research from Trend Micro. Since May, the new mobile malware, which Trend Micro dubs CallerSpy, has appeared on multiple occasions on a phishing site http://gooogle[.]press imitating apps such as Chatrious and Apex App. All users have to do to get infected is click the download button on the site, and then the spyware monitors for commands from the attackers’ command and control server. It appears to only target Android users for now, according to Trend Micro. The company has not discovered any victims, according to its research. CallerSpy, which Trend Micro assesses is a targeted espionage campaign, can collect call logs, text messages, contacts, and files from victims. It can also take screenshots and send them back to the command […]

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NSO employees take Facebook to Israeli court to unblock accounts

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The plot has thickened in a legal battle between social media giant Facebook and NSO Group, a surveillance software vendor accused of abetting human rights abuses. After Facebook sued the Israeli company last month for allegedly violating a federal anti-hacking law, NSO Group employees have filed their own motion in Israeli court, claiming that Facebook unfairly blocked their personal accounts in retaliation. The petition from several NSO Group employees asks the court to order Facebook to lift a block on their Facebook and Instagram accounts, arguing that Facebook cut access to their accounts without notice and in violation of the company’s policies. The motion is a smaller-scale response to Facebook’s landmark lawsuit against NSO Group. The suit, brought in a federal court in California, alleges that the vendor violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act when NSO’s custom malware was deployed on some 1,400 mobile devices with WhatsApp installed during […]

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Sen. Menendez questions Twitter about former employees spying for Saudi Arabia

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Sen. Bob Menendez has a lot of questions for Twitter and the Trump Administration after the Justice Department charged two former Twitter employees with spying on behalf of Saudi Arabia. Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat who serves as ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has written two letters, one to State Department officials and another to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, asking for details on how Saudi Arabia was able to exploit an American company’s internal systems for its own goals. He also wants to know what Twitter, and the Trump Administration, are doing about it. “As we know from the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi officials carefully surveil social media for any critical voices,” Menendez wrote, referring to The Washington Post columnist who was an espionage target before he was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul last year. “However, these public charges reveal the extent to which Saudi Arabia is exploiting American companies […]

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Trump administration looks to throttle Chinese surveillance companies’ business with U.S.

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The U.S. Commerce Department made moves Monday to limit the activities of eight Chinese companies in the U.S., citing human rights abuses and surveillance against Uighurs and other Chinese Muslim minorities. The department said it is adding the companies to its Entity List, which identifies people, businesses or other organizations for “engaging in activities contrary to U.S. national security and/or foreign policy interests.” Although the department names human rights abuses as the primary concern in its latest action, some of the eight companies have also come under federal scrutiny in recent months for security issues. Just two months ago the Trump administration issued a rule to bar federal purchases of telecommunications equipment from two of the companies added to the list this week, Hangzhou Hikvision Digital Technology Co. Ltd., a former Chinese government research arm, and Dahua Technology. Those earlier moves were done in accordance with the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. Another company added to the Entity List this week, Xiamen […]

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An ongoing hacking campaign targets dissidents in Egypt, researchers say

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Security researchers on Thursday detailed an ongoing hacking campaign against Egyptian human rights activists and journalists, showing how the attackers have planted their own malware in the Google Play Store to track their victims. An analysis of the hacking campaign by Check Point Software Technologies highlights how the hackers have not only used third-party apps to gain access to victim emails but also employed stealthy mobile apps that log the date and duration of calls, or the location of the caller. Evidence suggests the Egyptian government could be behind the activity, which dates back to 2016 and is more multifaceted than previously documented. If definitively tied to Egyptian authorities, it would be just the latest example of an autocratic regime aiming software tools at activists and critics. Under President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian government has cracked down further on dissent, j­ailing activists and, NGOs say, abusing human rights. “We saw [the […]

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Osano makes business risk and compliance (somewhat) sexy again

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A new startup is clearing the way for other companies to better monitor and manage their risk and compliance with privacy laws. Osano, an Austin, Texas-based startup, bills itself as a privacy platform startup, which uses a software-as-a-service solution to give businesses real-time visibility into their current privacy and compliance posture. On one hand, that […] Continue reading Osano makes business risk and compliance (somewhat) sexy again→

Black Hat 2019: Ethical Hackers Must Protect Digital Human Rights

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From government surveillance to domestic abuse, technology is being used in new and disturbing ways that threaten human rights – how can the security industry fight back? Continue reading Black Hat 2019: Ethical Hackers Must Protect Digital Human Rights→

OneTrust raises $200M at a $1.3B valuation to help organizations navigate online privacy rules

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GDPR, and the newer California Consumer Privacy Act, have given a legal bite to ongoing developments in online privacy and data protection: it’s always good practice for companies with an online presence to take measures to safeguard people’s data, but now failing to do so can land them in some serious hot water. Now — […] Continue reading OneTrust raises $200M at a $1.3B valuation to help organizations navigate online privacy rules→

The developers of the notorious FinSpy spyware are innovating — and thriving

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Like any competitive company, a spyware vendor has to innovate when its proprietary data is exposed or stolen. For Gamma Group, the maker of the notorious FinSpy spyware, the definitive moment came in 2014, when it was hacked and information about its software and clients was dumped online. Since then, FinSpy’s authors have revamped big portions of the software, improving the encryption and making the code harder for analysts to parse, according to new research from Kaspersky Lab. The updated spyware implants for iOS and Android have been used in nearly 20 countries in the last year or so across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East, the researchers said Wednesday. In Myanmar, an ongoing campaign has infected several dozen phones. The researchers suspect there are many more victims out there, given how popular FinSpy has been with government clients. “The developers behind FinSpy constantly monitor security updates for mobile platforms and tend to quickly […]

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