NSO Group Pitched Phone Hacking Tech To American Police (vice.com) 28
NSO Group, the surveillance vendor best known for selling hacking technology to authoritarian governments, including Saudi Arabia, also tried to sell its products to local U.S. police, Motherboard reported Tuesday, citing internal documents. From the report: The news provides the strongest evidence yet of NSO's attempt to enter the U.S. market, and shows apparent appetite from U.S. police for such tools, with one law enforcement official describing the hacking technology as "awesome." "Turn your target's smartphone into an intelligence gold mine," a brochure for the hacking product, called Phantom, reads. The brochure was made by Westbridge Technologies, "the North American branch of NSO Group," it says. Motherboard obtained the document and related emails through a public records act request. In August 2016, a Westbridge employee emailed the San Diego Police Department (SDPD) offering more information on Phantom, "a mobile intelligence system that would be a great addition to your investigative and special support offices." After remotely hacking the phone, Phantom can siphon a target's emails, text messages, and contact list, as well track their location, turn on the device's microphone and take photos with its camera, according to the brochure.
As usual (Score:3)
A small percentage of assholes gives enough reasons to another small percentage of assholes to be even bigger assholes.
Authoritarian abuse, never... (Score:1)
The best part of this type of shit is that the same folks who are appalled and outraged by this will be in the comments of every coronavirus post telling everyone who'll listen to just trust the government authorities and follow whatever quarantine and contact tracing policies they put forth.
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If you want to troll it’s probably more effective to bring their supposed stance on the second amendment into it.
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If you were actually against government overreach then you'd know I wasn't trolling... but sure, you can view the reality of the conflicting views put forth by a majority of slashdot users as something other than reality I guess, whatever works for you.
Not all reach is over-reach (Score:3)
You seem to be assuming that anything government officials do, or even suggest, is over-reach.
Without any controls, each person infected with covid-19 passes it to 2-3 other people. That means the number of infected people doubles every couple of weeks. Pretty soon almost everyone in infected. We call that exponential growth.
In the same way, if a combination of strategies including masks and social distancing gets the reproduction rate (known as R) of the virus to 0.5, meaning for every two people who hav
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What's being done thus far is nothing but unreasonable fear mongering and the reality of this pathogen, as born out by serological testing, is that its virulence was vastly overstated and we've now got conclusive evidence that it was spreading among the general population months earlier than initially believed without the extensive doomsday we've been told such events would cause.
Those facts mean that, yes, the current measures are indisputably government overreach.
I get it, you blindly believe everything y
Fuck you shill (Score:2)
Fuck you right in your putin pucker you fucker.
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Meanwhile in the real world there are plenty of us that don’t like government overreach in any form.
I don't think so. Authoritarians dominate our political system on both the left and right.
The libertarian wing of the Republican Party is dead and gone.
The Democrats are drifting further than ever toward nanny-statism.
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So you don't have to depend on a strawman, I'll stand in for you:
I'm completely against government overreach using technologies such as these and civil liberties are extremely important to me. I don't see how this conflicts with my belief that we should listen to scientific and medical authorities while trying to navigate through this pandemic (sorry, I cannot fully fill the shoes of your strawman as I think the contact tracing ought to be opt-in).
What I do know is that government surveillance is a threat t
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You're a shill.
Look at the coronavirus post vs this post. Old slashdot would have been very concerned. I fucking hate this site anymore.
It is an obvious customer (Score:4, Insightful)
While "the American police" is not a homogeneous body and I am sure you find decent people there, there is a large trend to more and more extreme police-state type behavior, where the police can do whatever they like (including rape, murder and torture) without any real consequence. Hence, of course, any type of tech useful for fighting citizens, in particular the ones that insist on having rights, is welcome. The laws are already such that basically anybody can be locked up if they just look hard enough, and this tech makes looking easier. Hence this vendor is just pitching to an obvious potential customer.
Re: It is an obvious customer (Score:2)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8307463/Louisiana-cop-charged-rape-forced-woman-sex-exchange-speeding-ticket.html
Re: It is an obvious customer (Score:5, Informative)
Presumably, some court found in the past that "not being raped" was a "clearly established" right that police could not violate. Sadly, the doctrine of qualified immunity [theappeal.org] gives police a free pass until that right has "been established" (i.e. a court says so). Until the right is established (with specificity! "Beating you with a nightstick" may not be enough if those specific set of facts do not exist in case law--for example, "beating you with a nightstick while drunk" may be verboten, but "beating you with a nightstick while high on cocaine" may be a-ok) police cannot be held accountable.
Adding insult to injury, typically the first guy that violates a clearly established right typically gets a free pass (it wasn't "clearly established" until a court in that case said so, so the office still had qualified immunity). I mean, how else is the poor public servant supposed to know that he can't anally rape you with a nightstick unless some court said so in the past?
The worst part is that this protection exists nowhere in the constitution, or in law. The courts (specifically the Supreme Court) invented this doctrine from whole cloth, and in complete controversion of federal law (42 USC 1983).
Re: It is an obvious customer (Score:1)
Your made up world sounds bad
Good job it isn't real, Police are not allowed to rape, you silly liar.
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Your made up world sounds bad
Good job it isn't real, Police are not allowed to rape, you silly liar.
So in addition to being stupid, you are functionally illiterate. Figures. No, they are not allowed to do it, but if they do it they have a pretty good chance to not having to face consequences. That is a bit differently. It is also the standard situation in a police-state. In theory, they still need to follow the law, but unless they go far over the line (raping children, for example, and no way to hush it up), they will get away with it and even keep their jobs.
Re: It is an obvious customer (Score:2)
Why waste your time embarrassing yourself?
You lied. Be a grown up and admit it. Otherwise you are just confirming your rep on here. When I say we see it, I'm talking about the Slashdot community.
Go on try something other than an insult, and recognise where you "mis-spoke" I dare you.
You're full of shit. (Score:2)
No the cops suck and slashdot has been anti authority for it's entire life.
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Are you getting off on writing obviously stupid responses? Because that is all you are doing here. Please explain were I said anything untrue, and give evidence.
Cake eating pussy (Score:2)
Hahahah oh god. You are a cake eating pussy who has never been in the real world
Profits before people (Score:1)
Re:LAW ENFORCEMENT REQUIRES FULL ACCESS!!! (Score:5, Insightful)
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin
since i already know (Score:2)
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You somehow missed the Israeli/Mossad connection. (Score:2)
And completely failed to mention that they are an Israeli company, most likely a privat spin-off from Mossad.
Mossad is to intelligence agencies what the Albanian Mafia is to the Mafias. No code, no honor, no conscience, and industrious like no one else. The Vlad Dracul of kings. Motto: The enemy will lose because he has principles. Limits.
And no, that has almost nothing to do with the average Israeli, let alone the average Jew, so don't even try to assume racism or religiousness. In fact it is a slap in the