Security News
Finland's Ministry for Foreign Affairs says devices of Finnish diplomats have been hacked and infected with NSO Group's Pegasus spyware in a cyber-espionage campaign. "Finnish diplomats have been targets of cyber espionage by means of the Pegasus spyware, developed by NSO Group Technologies, which has received wide publicity," the Ministry said in a statement published today.
Citizen Lab published another report on the spyware used against two Egyptian nationals. The other was hacked both by Pegasus and by the spyware from another cyberweapons arms manufacturer: Cytrox.
Eighteen US Democratic lawmakers have asked the Treasury Department and State Department to punish Israel-based spyware maker NSO Group and three other surveillance software firms for enabling human rights abuses. In a letter [PDF] signed by US Senator Ron Wyden, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, and 16 others, the legislators urge Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen and Secretary of State Antony Blinken to apply sanctions to the NSO Group, UAE-based DarkMatter Group, and EU-based Nexa Technologies and Trovicor, under the Global Magnitsky Act.
NSO Group's descent into Internet pariah status continues. Its Pegasus spyware was used against nine US State Department employees.
The Apple iPhones of at least nine US State Department officials were compromised by an unidentified entity using NSO Group's Pegasus spyware, according to a report published Friday by Reuters. NSO Group in an email to The Register said it has blocked an unnamed customers' access to its system upon receiving an inquiry about the incident but has yet to confirm whether its software was involved.
The complaint alleges that the maker of the infamous Pegasus mobile spyware is responsible for the illegal surveillance of Apple users. "In a free society, it is unacceptable to weaponize powerful state-sponsored spyware against those who seek to make the world a better place," said Ivan Krstić, head of apple security engineering and architecture, in an Apple statement, issued Monday.
To prevent further abuse and harm to its users, Apple is also seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services, or devices. NSO Group's Pegasus spyware is favored by totalitarian governments around the world, who use it to hack Apple phones and computers.
Apple has sued NSO Group and its parent company Q Cyber Technologies in a U.S. federal court holding it accountable for illegally targeting users with its Pegasus surveillance tool, marking yet another setback for the Israeli spyware vendor. "State-sponsored actors like the NSO Group spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability. That needs to change," said Craig Federighi, Apple's senior vice president of Software Engineering in a statement.
Apple has filed a lawsuit against Pegasus spyware-maker NSO Group and its parent company for the targeting and spying of Apple users with surveillance tech. NSO's FORCEDENTRY exploit was used by state-backed attackers to break into Apple devices to install the latest version of Pegasus spyware, as revealed by the Citizen Lab in August.
The Israeli cyberweapons arms manufacturer - and human rights violator, and probably war criminal - NSO Group has been added to the US Department of Commerce's trade blacklist. Aside from the obvious difficulties this causes, it'll make it harder for them to buy zero-day vulnerabilities on the open market.