
UK to host spyware firm accused of aiding human rights abuses - LinuxBender
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/06/uk-to-host-spyware-firm-accused-of-aiding-human-rights-abuses
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EvilSpark
I sort of guessed that it's definitely an Israeli company. Otherwise which
country and it's Companies get every legal permission after breaking every
possible law?

~~~
crispinb
Er just about every nation, ever? As nations develop legal & regulatory
systems, the means of corruption changes, but the corruption stays.

In India companies directly pay politicians to skirt regulations. Here in
Australia that's rarer, but the corporations via lobbyists simply write the
regulations that they then largely conform to. Same deal. Different means.

~~~
celticninja
I guess GP means state sanctioned support. But I don't agree that this is an
Israeli only thing, Hacking Team are Italian and do the same thing.

~~~
crispinb
Sure - as it happens my nation (Australia) has far fewer of the kind of
entanglements that prompt this particular activity, compared to Israel. But
you can entirely sure that if we did, we'd allow tech spying lobbyists to
write the necessary laws to cover them.

~~~
somesortofsystm
Australia is about 100x better at hiding its entanglements than Israel, which
has had an overt show of force policy for decades.

Australia, on the other hand, has so many layers and levels of secrecy around
its state-run operations of this nature, that its impossible, truly, to really
ever know.

Australia leads the way when it comes to repressing free speech and the public
right of knowledge over what is being done in their name by the ADF, and has
even taught Israel a few things or two about keeping its internal populations
at heel when something nasty inevitably leaks out.

And then there is that whole secret court, secret prison, secret prisoner
thing.

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miohtama
> In the last four years they have included countries whose human rights
> records have been criticised such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE, Oman,
> Qatar and Hong Kong.

A perfect party to sell stuff for those whose other hand is operating a bone
saw

~~~
DyslexicAtheist
fwiw, using the prominent example of DarkMatter they're staffed mainly by
Europeans, Americans, Indians. Nobody critics these people who voluntarily go
there to work and instead we all pretend "Technology is Neutral".

~~~
ryanlol
Really?

~~~
DyslexicAtheist
well yes. quickest way to verify my claim is to check LinkedIn for who works
at DarkMatter:

[https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/people/?facetCurrent...](https://www.linkedin.com/search/results/people/?facetCurrentCompany=%5B%226395240%22%5D)

This is a good read too:

[https://theintercept.com/2016/10/24/darkmatter-united-
arab-e...](https://theintercept.com/2016/10/24/darkmatter-united-arab-
emirates-spies-for-hire/)

Since they started they have become more careful about compartmentalization
and making efforts to conceil their activities by shell'ing out (pun intended)
by using new companies/structures for sensitive ops that can effect how they
are perceived on the market. As an American who works there once told me: _"
we have a good thing going here."_ (this was just a few weeks after this
happened:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19308430](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19308430))

I don't want to sound snarky but I would have assumed from your many excellent
/ on-point comments here over the years that you're well read and informed on
them ;)

Edit: it's very hard to say no to 0 income tax.

~~~
ryanlol
I know who works at DarkMatter, it’s this part I was picking up on:

>Nobody critics these people who voluntarily go there to work and instead we
all pretend "Technology is Neutral".

This really doesn’t match my experiences. Maybe we hang out in rather
different circles though?

OTOH, unsurprisingly the people making their living in the state-sponsored
offsec space aren’t going to complain about DarkMatter & co.

------
nimbius
TL;DR: its the NSO Group

These are the same guys who were outright permabanned from Facebook for
hacking the whatsapp of about 1400 diplomats, government officials, human-
rights activists, lawyers, and journalists scattered across the world.

[https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/30/nso_facebook_employ...](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/10/30/nso_facebook_employees/)

If a shady government wants you gone (and doesnt have the resources for black
site rendition like the US) then NSO is basically their starting point.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSO_Group#Pegasus_spyware](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NSO_Group#Pegasus_spyware)

~~~
noarchy
By "shady government", does this not include the UK government itself at this
point? And we don't yet know which other governments will be represented, but
we can apparently expect around 60, as per the article. That's a lot of
potential shadiness.

~~~
crispinb
Yes, though perhaps 'shady population' is more like it. When I lived in
Coventry many years ago, several of my neighbours worked for a local firm on
manufacturing lines churning out torture equipment. It was no great secret,
and no-one had a problem with it.

~~~
katmannthree
What were they making?

~~~
crispinb
Leg irons & electrocution gear were the two items I specifically remember.

------
dang
Url changed from [https://www.zdnet.com/article/uk-government-rolls-out-the-
re...](https://www.zdnet.com/article/uk-government-rolls-out-the-red-carpet-
for-infamous-spyware-vendor/), which points to this.

