Security News

A sweeping probe into a data leak of more than 50,000 phone numbers has revealed an extensive misuse of Israeli company NSO Group's Pegasus "Military-grade spyware" to facilitate human rights violations by surveilling heads of state, activists, journalists, and lawyers around the world. "The Pegasus Project lays bare how NSO's spyware is a weapon of choice for repressive governments seeking to silence journalists, attack activists and crush dissent, placing countless lives in peril," Amnesty International's Secretary-General, Agnès Callamard, said.

So the first vulnerability is based on the fact that the cell around network and the connectivity between cell networks around the world is built in such a way that whenever there is some, some sort of message call or any other message to be others to you. Connected to the, over the set alarm network, but eventually it is connected to the open internet and the like any device connected to the open internet.

Israeli-based NSO Group is being blasted in a groundbreaking report that alleges that the company's controversial Pegasus malware is being used to target activists, journalists, business executives and politicians on a widespread level, using a variety of exploits - including a zero-click zero-day in iOS. A consortium of journalists leveled the allegations in a report called Pegasus Project, which was published Sunday. It examined leaked data from the NSO Group, which revealed a cache of more than 50,000 mobile phone numbers worldwide that the firm was storing, according to the report published by the Guardian newspaper.

Human rights non-governmental organization Amnesty International and non-profit project Forbidden Stories revealed in a recent report that they found spyware made by Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group deployed on iPhones running Apple's latest iOS release, hacked using zero-day zero-click iMessage exploits. Citizen Lab was able to independently observe NSO Pegasus spyware deployed on an iPhone 12 Pro Max running iOS 14.6, hacked via a zero-day zero-click iMessage exploit, which does not require interaction from the target.

The spyware vendor was also formally identified as the commercial surveillance company that Google's Threat Analysis Group revealed as exploiting multiple zero-day vulnerabilities in Chrome browser to target victims located in Armenia, according to a report published by the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab. "Candiru's apparent widespread presence, and the use of its surveillance technology against global civil society, is a potent reminder that the mercenary spyware industry contains many players and is prone to widespread abuse," Citizen Lab researchers said.

Amnesty International and French journalism advocacy organisation Forbidden Stories say they've acquired a leaked list of individuals targeted by users of Israeli spyware-for-law-enforcement operator NSO Group, and that Heads of State, academics, diplomats, human rights advocates, and media figures are among those targeted. Perhaps the most explosive claim is that NSO products were used to target family members of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the days before he was murdered in Istanbul.

An Israeli firm accused of supplying spyware to governments has been linked to a list of 50,000 smartphone numbers, including those of activists, journalists, business executives and politicians around the world, according to reports Sunday. The Post said 15,000 of the numbers on the list were in Mexico and included those of politicians, union representatives, journalists and government critics.

A set of unique spyware strains created by an Israeli firm and allegedly used by governments around the world to surveil dissidents has been defanged by Microsoft, the software giant said. The spyware exploits two elevation-of-privilege security vulnerabilities in Windows, CVE-2021-31979 and CVE-2021-33771, both of which were addressed in Microsoft's July Patch Tuesday update this week.

Software patches from Microsoft this week closed two vulnerabilities exploited by spyware said to have been sold to governments by Israeli developer Candiru. On Thursday, Citizen Lab released a report fingering Candiru as the maker of the espionage toolkit, an outfit Microsoft code-named Sourgum.

Microsoft and Citizen Lab have linked Israeli spyware company Candiru to new Windows spyware dubbed DevilsTongue deployed using now patched Windows zero-day vulnerabilities. The investigation into Candiru's attacks started after Citizen Labs shared malware samples found on a victim's systems and led to the discovery of CVE-2021-31979 and CVE-2021-33771, two zero-day vulnerabilities fixed by Microsoft during this month's Patch Tuesday.