This is somewhat fluffy piece that is connected to what appears to an evolving global story on targetting of journalists, political opponents using NSO made Pegasus spyware. Let's wait till investigations are completed before jumping to conclusions (even if Snowden has already called it "story of the yea
r").
QAnon believers don't know how to handle Michael Flynn's ties to spyware firm behind Pegasus
"So is General Flynn a bad guy then?" asked one QAnon believer.
By Matt Binder on July 23, 2021
Flynn's ties to an Israeli spyware firm is causing a rift among QAnon believers. Credit: Tasos Katopodis
Edward Snowden is calling it the "
story of the year."
On Sunday, the first in a series of investigations were
published involving NSO Group, an Israeli firm. The report focused on how the firm's spyware software, Pegasus, has been used by governments to target world leaders, political dissidents, activists, and journalists around the world.
As new stories about the spyware continue to drop, believers of the vast right-wing conspiracy theory QAnon had their own revelation to deal with:
Michael Flynn has ties to the firm behind the spyware.
Flynn's ties to NSO Group are now well known, thanks to financial disclosure forms.
Back in 2017, Huffington Post
reported that Flynn had previously worked as an advisory board member and "consultant" for OSY Technologies, NSO Group’s parent company, as well as its previous owner, private equity firm Francisco Partners. According to the
Washington Post, Flynn was paid "roughly $100,000" for his work as a consultant for the companies between 2015 and 2017.
mashable.com/article/michael-flynn-qanon-nso-group-pegasus
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Mexico used Israeli Spyware Pegasus to Surveil President’s Family & a Murdered Journalist
One of the Mexican journalists on the list was murdered in 2017 after criticising alleged links between politicians and criminals.
Cecilio Pineda was one of more than 100 journalists murdered since 2000 in Mexico, one of the world’s deadliest countries for reporters.
The leaked list of smartphone numbers did not include Lopez Obrador himself, according to Aristegui Noticias.
The left-wing leader “apparently did not use a personal cellphone” and communicated through his aides, it said.
Mexican agencies that have acquired the spyware include the defence ministry, the attorney general’s office and the national security intelligence service, it added.
Mexico City Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum, cabinet ministers and other officials of the current government were also identified as potential targets.
At the time, Lopez Obrador was the opposition leader and political rival of Pena Nieto.“It’s something that is assumed, especially because Mexico is among the most dangerous countries to practice the profession,” she said.
At the time that Turati appears to have been targeted through NSO, she and two colleagues were investigating the corruption scandal engulfing Brazilian conglomerate Odebrecht.
Former Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has acknowledged that his government had bought the Israeli-made spyware Pegasus.
Mexicans stunned: Their ousted president just gave Jared Kushner their nation’s greatest award
Tue November 27, 2018
Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto bestowed Mexico's highest honor for foreigners on Jared Kushner on Friday in Buenos Aires.
The Order of the Aztec is Mexico's highest honor for foreigners and Kushner will receive it for his role in coordinating US-Mexico relations since President Donald Trump came into office, in particular his role in helping to renegotiate the NAFTA free trade agreement.
France to investigate alleged spying attempt by Morocco
12 hours ago
French Prez Macron orders inquiry into Israeli spyware case after reports of his phone hack
"Immediately following the publication of the report, Macron called for a series of investigations to be carried out into the Pegasus spyware case, Prime Minister Jean Castex told French TV channel TF1 on Wednesday.
Then on Thursday, Macron held an emergency cybersecurity meeting to weigh possible government action after reports that his cellphone and those of government ministers may have been targeted by spyware. Macron changes his phones regularly and is “taking the matter very seriously,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal said Thursday on France-Inter radio.
Forbidden Stories has revealed in the past how Morocco uses NSO's tools to track and spy on journalists. Amnesty published its first report on how NSO’s products were being used in Morocco in October 2019.
Israel and Morocco have had official ties since 2020 since a joint Israeli-American delegation headed by Trump administration senior adviser Jared Kushner and Meir Ben-Shabbat, who heads Israel's National Security Council, flew to the country. At the time, a number of low-level cooperation agreements were signed between Morocco and Israel."
Israeli Spyware Maker NSO In Spotlight
NSO’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week Is Just the Start
Amitai Ziv
July 22, 2021
After a global investigation into a list of potential targets selected by their clients, NSO faces a string of very serious challenges.
Last week was perhaps the most dramatic in the history of Israeli cyberespionage firm NSO Group.
U.S. Lawmakers Demand Action After Spyware Allegations Against Israeli NSO
Ben Samuels
Jul. 23, 2021
WASHINGTON – U.S. lawmakers are growing increasingly alarmed by reports that the Israeli firm NSO Group leased military-grade spyware to authoritarian regimes around the world, who allegedly used it to hack the phones of politicians, journalists, human rights activists and business executives.
Rep. Tom Malinowski, who has been at the forefront of demands that Saudi Arabia be held accountable over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, told Haaretz that he is considering legislation aimed at regulating the private spyware industry.
That year NSO was mentioned in two other cases associated with Dubai. Princess Latifa, daughter of Dubai’s leader Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, fled from her home and sailed in the yacht Nostromo from Oman to India. After the yacht left Oman’s territorial waters Latifa thought she was on the way to freedom, but shortly afterward the boat was stopped by Dubai commandos who abducted the princess and brought her home. Since then no one has seen or heard her.
The Pegasus Project reveals that the princess and her mother had been under surveillance by Pegasus, and the spyware is believed to have led the commandos to her location.
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July 20, 2021
Where Netanyahu Went, NSO Followed: How Israel Pushed Cyberweapon Sales
Haaretz
Investigation of potential Pegasus targets reveals: From Hungary to India and even Saudi Arabia, this is how Israel became the cyber industry’s patron and pushed spyware sales across the world
Facebook owned WhatsApp and Apple's iPhone messaging apps are also cited in reported Israeli spyware cases
"In the 2019 hack, the spyware exploited a 'zero-day bug in the WhatsApp application, that would see users receive a WhatsApp call and have the malicious code installed on their phone even if they didn't answer. Similarly, Apple's iMessage software has also fallen victim to Pegasus. "
Facebook Is Collaborating With the Israeli Government
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Pegasus spyware scandal: Why were Indian health advocates targeted?
From a virologist to health nonprofits, Kunal Purohit explores what the Pegasus Project’s India list reveals about the country’s health system politics.
Modi government accused of spying on critics and opponents using Pegasus spyware
July 22, 2021
Just when Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government is trying to recover from widespread international and local condemnation for its culpability in India's COVID apocalypse, it is now being derided for what some are calling India's Watergate.
A powerful surveillance tool called Pegasus, made by Israeli firm NSO and licensed only to governments, was allegedly used in India to snoop on mobile phones of up to 1,000 people over the past six years, according to a groundbreaking global collaborative investigation by a consortium called the Pegasus Project.
The Project comprised more than 80 journalists working for 17 media organisations around the world, including the
Guardian, India's
The Wire and the
Washington Post.
zdnet.com/article/modi-government-accused-of-spying-on-critics-opponents-using-pegasus-spyware/
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