
Israel’s NSO: the business of spying on your iPhone - olivermarks
https://www.ft.com/content/7f2f39b2-733e-11e9-bf5c-6eeb837566c5
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olivermarks
[https://twitter.com/FT/status/1128148984143470592](https://twitter.com/FT/status/1128148984143470592)
readable via here

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olliej
NSO is fundamentally an unethical organisation.

Ignoring their deliberate targeting via “detectives” and their attempts to
create an anti-Israel story, they willingly sell goods to countries that are
known to violate human rights. We know this because the same customers have
repeatedly been caught using their software to deliberately attack human
rights workers.

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elipsey
It's hard to actually read the article, but the gist of it seems to be that
firms are using regulatory arbitrage to sell hacking services to foreigners.
It seems inevitable that some jurisdictions will allow this sort of thing.

I'm curious about whether anyone in the US is allowed to hire outfits like
this, and what happens if they get caught. Is it ever legal for me to hire a
hacking service that does things that are illegal for me to do? What, if
anything, can US citizens do to become authorized to do similar things
domestically? US security contractors sort of seem like have more leeway then
I do, but maybe they just have LLCs and good lawyers?

An understanding of this part of the business environment should inform our
security assumptions. Does anyone know more about the rules for this kind of
stuff?

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olivermarks
'NSO has been selling the ability to hack mobile phones in any part of the
world — most recently using WhatsApp — with geographical software limitations
decided by the Israeli government, according to a person familiar with the
company. That means that a spy agency in one country can theoretically hack
phones well outside their jurisdiction'

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olliej
Yup! We know their software was being used (in the case of pegasus) against
human rights activists in the UAE.

We know that they literally sent disguised detectives to "interview" human
rights activists and security researches at Citizen Lab in Canada (U of
Toronto).

I can't imagine working for a company like this.

