🌍 U.S. imposes visa restrictions on those (developers, sellers, beneficiaries, and companies) involved in illegal surveillance through commercial #spyware like #Pegasus.
New by me @Forbes: Google TAG and Jigsaw Unit publish global spyware analysis (turns irony detector off) including case studies and info on 40 vendors.
#Cybersecurity#Surveillance#Spyware#Stalkerware: "The makers of two phone surveillance services appear to have shuttered after the owner agreed to settle state accusations of illegally promoting spyware that his companies developed.
PhoneSpector and Highster were consumer-grade phone monitoring apps that facilitated the covert surveillance of a person’s smartphone. Commonly dubbed stalkerware (or spouseware), these apps are typically planted on a person’s phone, often by a spouse or domestic partner and usually with knowledge of the device passcode. These apps are designed to stay hidden from home screens, making them difficult to find and remove, all the while continuously uploading the phone’s messages, photos and real-time location data to a dashboard viewable by the abuser.
In February 2023, Patrick Hinchy, whose consortium of New York and Florida-based tech companies developed PhoneSpector and Highster, agreed to pay $410,000 in penalties to settle accusations that Hinchy’s companies advertised and “aggressively promoted” spyware that allowed the secret phone surveillance of individuals living in New York state."
Israel #NSO Group's #Pegasus#spyware targeted nearly 3 dozen journalists, activists, and lawyers in Jordan, raising concerns about privacy violations and government abuse.
"Two Human Rights Watch staff members based in Jordan have been repeatedly targeted with advanced surveillance spyware, Human Rights Watch said today. The targeting, which violates their right to privacy, began in October 2022 and succeeded briefly in infecting one of their mobile phones.
The same spyware was also used to target the devices of at least 33 Jordanian and Jordan-based journalists, activists, and politicians between 2019 and September 2023, according to an Access Now report, released on February 1, 2024, that relied on a forensic investigation conducted jointly with the Canadian academic research center, Citizen Lab. The investigation found traces of Pegasus spyware in their mobile devices, with some devices infected multiple times. The analysis could not determine which government initiated the attacks."
#CyberSecurity#Spyware#NSOGroup#Pegasus#Jordan: "A new joint investigation, Between a hack and a hard place: how Pegasus spyware crushes civic space in Jordan, by Access Now, the Citizen Lab, and local partners reveals the widespread use of Israeli-owned NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware in Jordan. At least 35 journalists, activists, human rights lawyers, and civil society members have been targeted with Pegasus between 2019 and 2023. Read the full report.
The Pegasus hacking comes against a backdrop of escalating crackdowns on civic space and press freedom in Jordan, growing instability and violence across the region, and an increasingly-exposed use of invasive spyware across the globe. Among those targeted are two Jordan-based staff at Human Rights Watch, as confirmed by a forensic analysis conducted by Human Rights Watch in collaboration with Amnesty International’s Security Lab."
"Hundreds of thousands of ordinary apps, including popular ones such as 9gag, Kik, and a series of caller ID apps, are part of a global surveillance capability that starts with ads inside each app, and ends with the apps’ users being swept up into a powerful mass monitoring tool advertised to national security agencies that can track the physical location, hobbies, and family members of people to build billions of profiles"
#Surveillance#MobileApps#Spyware#AdTech: "Hundreds of thousands of ordinary apps, including popular ones such as 9gag, Kik, and a series of caller ID apps, are part of a global surveillance capability that starts with ads inside each app, and ends with the apps’ users being swept up into a powerful mass monitoring tool advertised to national security agencies that can track the physical location, hobbies, and family members of people to build billions of profiles, according to a 404 Media investigation.
404 Media’s investigation, based on now deleted marketing materials and videos, technical forensic analysis, and research from privacy activists, provides one of the clearest examinations yet of how advertisements in ordinary mobile apps can ultimately lead to surveillance by spy firms and their government clients through the real time bidding data supply chain. The pipeline involves smaller, obscure advertising firms and advertising industry giants like Google. In response to queries from 404 Media, Google and PubMatic, another ad firm, have already cut-off a company linked to the surveillance firm."
> A new type of mercenary spyware came on the radar called Predator. It’ll infect a mobile phone, and then suck up all the data from it. Contacts, text messages, location, and more. This malware is being sold to intelligence agencies around the world.
Listening to this episode opened my eyes about the crazy world of cyber mercenaries, a part of the #MilitaryIndustrialComplex profiting off of wars.
1/3 Yesterday, @EPCulture confirmed the EU Media Freedom Act #EMFA deal.
❌ They missed the chance to ensure sufficient protection for journalists against state interference, & took a dangerous step toward legalising #spyware in the EU.
🕵️♂️ Discover how a simple 'Shutdown.log' file on your #iPhone could be the key to identifying the presence of notorious #spyware, including #Pegasus, QuaDream's Reign, and Intellexa's Predator.