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United States Cellphones Government

How Close Was America's FBI to Deploying Pegasus Spyware? (yahoo.com) 47

Posted by EditorDavid from the unlocked-screens dept.
In a statement in February, America's Federal Bureau of Investigation "confirmed that it obtained NSO Group's powerful Pegasus spyware" back in 2019, reported the Guardian. At the time the FBI added that "There was no operational use in support of any investigation, the FBI procured a limited licence for product testing and evaluation only."

"But dozens of internal F.B.I. documents and court records tell a different story," the New York Times reported today: The documents, produced in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by The New York Times against the bureau, show that F.B.I. officials made a push in late 2020 and the first half of 2021 to deploy the hacking tools — made by the Israeli spyware firm NSO — in its own criminal investigations. The officials developed advanced plans to brief the bureau's leadership, and drew up guidelines for federal prosecutors about how the F.B.I.'s use of hacking tools would need to be disclosed during criminal proceedings. It is unclear how the bureau was contemplating using Pegasus, and whether it was considering hacking the phones of American citizens, foreigners or both. In January, The Times revealed that F.B.I. officials had also tested the NSO tool Phantom, a version of Pegasus capable of hacking phones with U.S. numbers.

The F.B.I. eventually decided not to deploy Pegasus in criminal investigations in July 2021, amid a flurry of stories about how the hacking tool had been abused by governments across the globe. But the documents offer a glimpse at how the U.S. government — over two presidential administrations — wrestled with the promise and peril of a powerful cyberweapon. And, despite the F.B.I. decision not to use Pegasus, court documents indicate the bureau remains interested in potentially using spyware in future investigations. "Just because the F.B.I. ultimately decided not to deploy the tool in support of criminal investigations does not mean it would not test, evaluate and potentially deploy other similar tools for gaining access to encrypted communications used by criminals," stated a legal brief submitted on behalf of the F.B.I. late last month....

The specifics of why the bureau chose not to use Pegasus remain a mystery, but American officials have said that it was in large part because of mounting negative publicity about how the tool had been used by governments around the world.
The Times also notes two responses to their latest report. U.S. Senator Ron Wyden complained the FBI's earlier testimony about Pegasus was incomplete and misleading, and that the agency "owes Americans a clear explanation as to whether the future operational use of NSO tools is still on the table."

But an F.B.I. spokeswoman said "the director's testimony was accurate when given and remains true today — there has been no operational use of the NSO product to support any FBI investigation."

Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader crazyvas for suggesting the story.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

How Close Was America's FBI to Deploying Pegasus Spyware? More

How Close Was America's FBI to Deploying Pegasus Spyware?

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  • Taken with a grain of salt... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ozmartian ( 5754788 ) on Saturday November 12, 2022 @04:40PM (#63046183) Homepage
    Cause we all know the FBI are bastions of truth

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Narcocide ( 102829 )

      Yea, no chance in hell they weren't using it already. This is just about how close they were to admitting it.

    • That's pretty much a given with the heavily- conditional denial: "operational use...to support any FBI investigation." At no point did they unequivocally deny any use.

    • > The F.B.I. eventually decided not to deploy Pegasus in criminal investigations in July 2021

      * ...Instead they waited until August 2021
      * ... Instead they deployed
      * ... Unfortunately, a rogue group of agents within the FBI chose to disregard the official position to eschew Pegasus. This was not discovered until

      There is no way in fuck they would not take every advantage, legal (*) or otherwise given that the other team don't pay by the rules - unless they are so awesome they can win with a disadvantage a

      • > The F.B.I. eventually decided not to deploy Pegasus in criminal investigations in July 2021

        * ...Instead they waited until August 2021
        * ... Instead they deployed <something better than Pegasus>
        * ... Unfortunately, a rogue group of agents within the FBI chose to disregard the official position to eschew Pegasus. This was not discovered until

        There is no way in fuck they would not take every advantage, legal (*) or otherwise given that the other team don't pay by the rules - unless they are so aweso

        • > The F.B.I. eventually decided not to deploy Pegasus in criminal investigations in July 2021

          * ...Instead they waited until August 2021
          * ... Instead they deployed
          * ... Unfortunately, a rogue group of agents within the FBI chose to disregard the official position to eschew Pegasus. This was not discovered until <one nano-second before the FOIA-request>

          There is no way in fuck they would not take every advantage, legal (*) or otherwise given that the other team don't pay by the rules - unless they ar

    • Cause we all know the FBI are bastions of truth

      Cause we all know the NY Times are bastions of truth

      FTFY

  • I'll see a flying horse before that happens.

  • Just as much as any other government does. Actually, since the NSA is easily the most competent electronic spy agency in the world, the US government probably spies MORE. So what makes the US any better?

    It’s what they do with the info. In North Korea, anyone who doesn’t toe the line gets thrown into a gulag along with their family. Or executed.

    In China, you disappear quietly for 6 months and when you return you’re very contrite and weigh 30 pounds less. In addition, your family me

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      False choice. The choice is not between two spying governments where one is less perfect than another. The choice is between governments that spy illegally and governments that stay legal.

      And oh, BTW: if US intelligence knew Jan 6 was coming, the expectation there is not that they lock you up for a pre-crime, but that they strengthen security to the point where the crime cannot be committed and lives cannot be lost. You're just spreading conspiracy theories by saying they knew about it beforehand. Please st

      • They knew it was coming, but there was this issue that the commander-in-chief wanted it to happen. Capitol security had been requesting increased resources for weeks and had been denied. Multiple times if I remember correctly.

        And, sorry to burst your bubble, but choosing the least worst government is EXACTLY what’s happens in the real world. Demanding perfection and settling for nothing less is for extremists, irrational idealists and children. I am none of those three things.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cstacy ( 534252 )

          They knew it was coming, but there was this issue that the commander-in-chief wanted it to happen. Capitol security had been requesting increased resources for weeks and had been denied. Multiple times if I remember correctly.

          You ought then to be able to point to the documents where these requests were made. (There might or might not be response letters, but for sure there would be request letters.)

          Got a link?

      • Some conspiracy theories are true. If the FBI knew that some were planning mischief on J6, and they chose to do nothing, that also is not necessarily a conspiracy, just in hindsight a mistake.

    • Damn Chinese US government!11!!!!1!! COMMIES!11!! RED DANGER!!11!!!11

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by qeveren ( 318805 )
      "Actually, you can get pretty damn extreme in your rhetoric and they’ll just watch you carefully but nothing else happens." ...assuming you're in the right subset of the population, at least.
    • Awww... that's so cute! It's as if you'd never heard of COINTELPRO.
      • ...and that's only the FBI. When you broaden to the other three letter agencies you run into things like MKULTRA.
      • I'm aware of what my country was doing last century. Looking back, it's very hard to say anything that might even have a whiff of excuse for stuff like COINTELPRO. That being said, let me state a few facts about 50 years ago:

        1. We were in the cold war. We were engaged in a serious competition for "who determines the top of the world order". While my country wasn't exactly a shining beacon of light, the USSR had MUCH darker goals.
        2. Russia was definitely supporting extremist groups in the US. At the tim

        • 1. We were in the cold war. We were engaged in a serious competition for "who determines the top of the world order". While my country wasn't exactly a shining beacon of light, the USSR had MUCH darker goals. - This is according to your own government & media. What the US govt was actually doing in international affairs was somewhat different, e.g. Madman Theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] (The US almost started WWIII as a result) & don't forget Henry Kissinger's immoral & criminal philos

    • And the reason for the apparent greater latitude in the US?

      Drumroll...

      In China etc., the population still have the capacity to want and effect change.

      In the 'free' West, the people only care about American Idle and their golf handicap and couldn't agree on the time of day.

    • In the US, they watch you. Quietly. If youâ(TM)re simply complaining online, nothing happens at all. Actually, you can get pretty damn extreme in your rhetoric and theyâ(TM)ll just watch you carefully but nothing else happens. Generally, the government wonâ(TM)t take any actual real action until you actively riot in the US capital. At that point, youâ(TM)re in a jail cell and/or you get a criminal trial. The US intelligence agencies knew that Jan6 was coming but our government doesnâ(TM)t lock people up for pre-crimes. So they waited until AFTER the riot.

      So what you're saying is that you support the insurrection, and want the TLAs to coddle insurrectionists? Because what we actually say is that they can know MAGAts are going to swarm the capitol and do nothing, and also can do nothing about an assassination plot against an environmental activist [wikipedia.org] and then take over the case claiming it was an example of eco-terrorism, then do nothing to "solve" it ... making it clear that they are either the ones who planted the bomb, or they let it happen because it served

  • So, they looked at using it. Drew up plans for using it. Looked at the plans. didn't use em. Sounds like "testing and evaluation only" to me. I suspect had they chosen to go ahead with it, they wouldn't have been using a limited license.
    • Yup - they evaluated Pegasus and found that their existing tools worked better.

      • Exactly my thoughts.

        Between the trinity of the FBI (the lawmen who believe that 'The Ends Justify The Means'), the NSA (the math nerds who never stopped to think how their beautiful theories could be misused before developing them), & the CIA (the spies for whom psychopathy, sociopathy, & megalomania are considered mandatory character traits to even be considered for employment at said agency), there's no chance in hell they aren't already using something similar...which will be revealed in 200 year

        • While I would love for there to be a right to privacy enshrined in the constitution, there isn't. So like.. 90% of that is irrelevant emotional manipulation.

    • I suspect had they chosen to go ahead with it, they wouldn't have been using a limited license.

      License, ha ha. We paid for that software already. Why do you think we keep pouring tax money into Israel?

  • I'm pretty sure the answer to that question is "look behind them."

    • Exactly they would never Admit they did it like a lot of things they refuse to admit that they were behind doing.

  • I've always been curious about the explicit disambiguation of saying "America's FBI". Finally I did the googling and while I can't immediately find more than one intelligence agency called FBI, there are multiple America's (yes, I knew that one), so I'm really not sure what the submitter/editors are trying to accomplish here, other than to sound "foreign cool" to the primarily U.S. audience of this site. I also expect to see "Microsoft are planning layoffs in Redmond" sometime soon.
    p.s. Your OCD off-topic

    • Well, yes, but you forget that the USA isn't the only place people are located that read this site and submit stories to it. Also remember that "The Guardian" which is where this article is located and points to is based in London, England, not in the USA, so from the perspective of the article, it really is "America's FBI".

      Now back discussions about the article and not about the fact that it was written across the pond but that people here in the USA always jump to conclusions and think we are the center

    • I've always been curious about the explicit disambiguation of saying "America's FBI". Finally I did the googling and while I can't immediately find more than one intelligence agency called FBI, there are multiple America's (yes, I knew that one), so I'm really not sure what the submitter/editors are trying to accomplish here, other than to sound "foreign cool"

      Wow, you literally could not be more hypocritical. Do you really have this little awareness?

      • Sorry, I'm a typical Slashdot reader, so I skim the summary, and then immediately spout off, so naturally I didn't notice where the article came from. So I apologize for the "foreign cool" accusation. Beyond that, you're going to have to draw me a picture showing otherwise how horrible I am. "America's FBI" just sounds awkward to me.

  • I always love the careful wording:

    But an F.B.I. spokeswoman said "the director's testimony was accurate when given and remains true today â" there has been no operational use of the NSO product to support any FBI investigation."

    Notice the stipulation that it wasn't used, "to support any FBI investigation."

    That doesn't mean the FBI didn't use it to support someone else's investigation.

    • Mod up. You know the rules of rhetoric . Adding a qualification to an answer is deception, and to a US senator - he will have to learn to construct questions clearly and add 'used by any US govt entity in any capacity - excluding strictly matters of national security. The second problems is the NSA or other has the capability to reverse engineer the software and use it widely - or buy similar software from another vendor (.it and .ch come to mind). If they ask the senator why he added that exclusion, he ca

    • Notice the stipulation that it wasn't used, "to support any FBI investigation."
      That doesn't mean the FBI didn't use it to support someone else's investigation.

      It also doesn't mean it isn't being used continuously for the well-known to exist unconstitutional wholesale citizen spying program. Think big, their lies are usually big.

    • Also, Wray spoke about the purpose of acquiring it. Just because it was not used (if you believe that) does not change the purpose of acquiring it, and he lied about that.

  • Back when we were told they were recording only the caller number, the called number, and the start time and end time of each call, they constructed this. I figured at the time a day's worth of U.S call data would fit on a disk drive you could pick up at WalMart. https://www.onlyinyourstate.co... [onlyinyourstate.com]
    • Give them red hot tips. Think of something fanciful but credible like local congressman ordering a deluxe Mexican drug party sampler plate for his donors at a fundraiser. Conversations and emails are full of it, but I have never been asked for 'assistance in investigating local big wig' Whoever hits the front page of the paper - link it with the rich and powerful. They should never believe everything they hear. The purple zebra eats rye bread. And messages to decode.

  • these days, what we are told and what actually happened are two different stories. Who really knows if the software was deployed or not?

  • Shouldn't the laws against computer hacking apply to members of the FBI as much as to everyone else?

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