Category Archives: NSO Group

Pegasus spyware active in 45 countries, Citizen Lab says

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An infamous brand of mobile spyware may be operating in 45 countries as part of a sprawling footprint that could enable human rights abuses, according to a new report. The Pegasus spyware made by Israeli surveillance company NSO Group correlated with more than a thousand IP addresses over a two year-study conducted by The Citizen Lab, a research and development organization at the University of Toronto. The Pegasus spyware attempts to lure targets into clinking on links and then delivers zero-day exploits to breach the defenses of iPhones and Android phones. Several of the countries where the researchers detected Pegasus have poor human rights records, such as Bahrain, Kazakhstan, and Saudi Arabia. “Our findings paint a bleak picture of the human rights risks of NSO’s global proliferation,” the report states. At least 10 operators of the spyware “appear to be actively engaged in cross-border surveillance,” according to Citizen Lab, pointing to the geopolitical […]

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Report: Powerful spyware used to target Amnesty International employee and Saudi activist

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An Amnesty International employee and Saudi Arabian activist were targeted with what appears to be commercial spyware only sold to governments. In a lengthy blog post released Wednesday, London-based Amnesty International revealed that a suspicious message with a malicious link was sent to an employee. Citizen Lab, a Canadian research organization, helped analyze the incident and posted its own set of findings, which corroborated Amnesty’s report. Both suggest that the malicious messages bore the marks of Pegasus, a highly sophisticated commercial spyware and exploitation tool sold by NSO Group, a secretive Israeli surveillance company that only sells its highly proprietary wares to authorized governments. In June, an Amnesty employee received a WhatsApp message in Arabic with Saudi Arabia-related content and a malicious link. Earlier this summer, a Saudi human rights activist living abroad also received SMS messages with a similar link. Neither were opened. Had the recipients clicked the links, researchers believe that they […]

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NSO Spyware Targets Saudi Human Rights Activists and Researchers

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Amnesty International, one of the most prominent non-profit human rights organizations in the world, claims one of its staff members has been targeted by a sophisticated surveillance tool made by Israel’s NSO Group.

The NSO Group is an Israeli firm th… Continue reading NSO Spyware Targets Saudi Human Rights Activists and Researchers→

Powerful Smartphone Malware Used to Target Amnesty International Researcher

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Human rights charity Amnesty International has found hackers attempted to infect one of their researcher’s phones with malware from Israeli vendor NSO Group. Continue reading Powerful Smartphone Malware Used to Target Amnesty International Researcher→

Disgruntled programmer accused of trying to sell his firm’s iPhone spyware for $50 million

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Your company doesn’t have to work in the field of high-tech surveillance and spyware to find itself at risk from insiders.
Read more in my article on the Tripwire State of Security blog.
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Ex-NSO Employee Caught Selling Stolen Phone Hacking Tool For $50 Million

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A former employee of one of the world’s most powerful hacking companies NSO Group has been arrested and charged with stealing phone hacking tools from the company and trying to sell it for $50 million on the Darknet secretly.

Israeli hacking firm NSO … Continue reading Ex-NSO Employee Caught Selling Stolen Phone Hacking Tool For $50 Million→

NSO Group employee allegedly stole source code worth ‘hundreds of millions of dollars’

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A former senior programmer at one of the world’s most powerful hacking companies was charged with stealing spyware and trying to secretly sell it for $50 million on the dark net. Headquartered in Tel Aviv, NSO Group is an Israeli cyber surveillance company famous for developing expensive malware that the world’s governments buy to use against high-value targets. The Israeli Justice Ministry said that a 38-year-old former employee downloaded the proprietary malware and attempted to sell it for cryptocurrency after he was fired on April 29, Israeli media reported. The identity of the alleged hacker has not been released publicly. The Justice Ministry imposed a gag order citing a threat to national security. According to Israeli authorities, the former employee conducted internet searches about how to circumvent McAfee Data Loss Protection software that is used by NSO Group as a security measure for its intellectual property. The employee allegedly then moved […]

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