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Kid Berwyn

(14,876 posts)
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 08:23 AM Jul 2021

Seems DU was right about Donny Blackmail.



How Does PEGASUS Work?

18 July 2021, OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project)

Excerpt…

Pegasus is the flagship product of Israeli cyber-surveillance company NSO Group, perhaps the best known of the new spyware companies. NSO Group’s technology allows its clients — which the company says are always governments, never private individuals or companies — to target specific phone numbers and infect the associated devices with Pegasus code.

But instead of trying to listen in on data flowing between two devices — which will probably be encrypted — Pegasus allows its users to commandeer the device itself, gaining access to everything on it.

Pegasus also monitors the keystrokes on an infected device – all written communications and web searches, even passwords – and returns them to the client, while also providing access the phone’s microphone and camera, turning it into a mobile spying device that the target unwittingly carries with them.

“When a phone is compromised, it’s done in such a way that allows the attackers to obtain administrative privileges on the device. That allows virtually anything to be done on the phone,” said Claudio Guarnieri from Amnesty International’s Security Lab, which has developed a methodology for analyzing infected devices.

CONTINUES…

https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pegasus-project/how-does-pegasus-work

This apparently is how Jeff Bezos and his wee willy selfie got into the public domain.

https://www.wired.co.uk/article/jeff-bezos-phone-hack-mbs-saudi-arabia

PEGASUS helped Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman target Khashoggi

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-57891506

And everywhere Netanyahu went, Pegasus sales were sure to follow. (Paywall)

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/tech-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT-where-bibi-went-nso-followed-how-israel-pushed-cyberweapons-sales-1.10015034

And wherever there’s money to be had, Jared’s sure to follow.


15 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Seems DU was right about Donny Blackmail. (Original Post) Kid Berwyn Jul 2021 OP
Barrack repping UAE in Secret seems important here kick. Kid Berwyn Jul 2021 #1
Kick dalton99a Jul 2021 #2
NSO's Pegasus spyware: here's what we know Kid Berwyn Jul 2021 #14
K & R...nt Wounded Bear Jul 2021 #3
Blackmail is Big Business. Ask Jeffrey Epstein... Kid Berwyn Jul 2021 #15
Dirty Donny UpInArms Jul 2021 #4
lets not forget.... getagrip_already Jul 2021 #5
Marking to read later. tanyev Jul 2021 #6
I can believe he blackmails people like Sen Graham, but your OP does NOT make the case Bernardo de La Paz Jul 2021 #7
Sorry, all I have is what's been in the newspapers. Kid Berwyn Jul 2021 #13
Pegasus Old Okie Jul 2021 #8
Keep emphasizing the links to the former guy gratuitous Jul 2021 #9
Autocracy, thy name is Republican SleeplessinSoCal Jul 2021 #10
What is this seta1950 Jul 2021 #11
Kick sarchasm Jul 2021 #12

Kid Berwyn

(14,876 posts)
1. Barrack repping UAE in Secret seems important here kick.
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 09:27 AM
Jul 2021
UAE said linked to listing of 400 UK phone numbers as targets for NSO spyware

Leaked list includes number of British peer, as well as details of daughter of Dubai ruler who tried to run away and his ex-wife who fled; Israel’s NSO Group denies claims


By Times Of Israel, STAFF
22 July 2021

The United Arab Emirates was connected to the listing of hundreds of British phone numbers as potential targets for spyware from Israel’s NSO Group, including the contact details of a member of the House of Lords, the Guardian reported Wednesday.

According to the report, there are over 400 UK phone numbers on the leaked list, and the main government responsible for selecting those targets was apparently the UAE.

NSO’s flagship program, Pegasus, can hack into cellphones without users knowing, enabling clients to read every message, track a user’s location and tap into the phone’s camera and microphone. According to the Guardian it is used by 40 countries.

Snip…

The numbers also included that of a lawyer working at a firm representing Princess Haya, as well as Baroness Uddin, a member of the House of Lords who told the Guardian that if there was spying on British parliamentarians it would be “a great breach of trust” which “contravenes our sovereignty.”

Continues…

https://www.timesofisrael.com/uae-said-linked-to-listing-of-400-uk-phone-numbers-as-targets-for-nso-spyware/

Kid Berwyn

(14,876 posts)
14. NSO's Pegasus spyware: here's what we know
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 11:46 AM
Jul 2021
The Pegasus Project reports that journalists, activists, and heads of state could have been infiltrated

By Mitchell Clark
The Verge, Jul 23, 2021

Throughout the past week, we’ve seen story after story about a company called NSO Group, and a piece of spyware called Pegasus. Some of the stories have been shocking, with allegations that fully updated smartphones can be hacked with a single text message, and reports that two women close to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi were among those targeted by a government agency using the spy tool.

Snip…

WHAT IS PEGASUS, AND WHO OR WHAT IS NSO GROUP?

Pegasus is spyware developed by a private contractor for use by government agencies. The program infects a target’s phone and sends back data, including photos, messages, and audio / video recordings. Pegasus’ developer, an Israeli company called NSO Group, says that the software can’t be traced back to the government using it — a crucial feature for clandestine operations.

In short, NSO Group makes products that let governments spy on citizens. The company describes the role of its products on its website as helping “government intelligence and law-enforcement agencies use technology to meet the challenges of encryption” during terrorism and criminal investigations. But as you might imagine, civil liberties groups aren’t happy about the spyware-for-hire business, and restricting the business to government clients does little to quiet their concerns.

The company told The Washington Post that it works only with government agencies, and that it will cut off an agency’s access to Pegasus if it finds evidence of abuse. In its transparency report released at the end of June, the company claimed it has done that before. Still, an Amnesty International statement raised concerns that the company is providing spyware to oppressive governments, where government agencies can’t be trusted to do right by their citizens.

The Forbidden Stories organization, which helped lead the Pegasus Project’s efforts, has a write-up of the company’s exploits and controversies over the past decade, some of which have inspired lawsuits from journalists and activists arguing that NSO’s software has been used improperly. The Washington Post also has an interview that covers the company’s own story about how it was founded and how it got started in the surveillance industry.

Continues (lots o’ good links)…

https://www.theverge.com/22589942/nso-group-pegasus-project-amnesty-investigation-journalists-activists-targeted

Kid Berwyn

(14,876 posts)
15. Blackmail is Big Business. Ask Jeffrey Epstein...
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 11:55 AM
Jul 2021

If only we could. He went through, um, Barr’s MAGAmorphosis.



An important picture that ties things from commie-hunting Joe McCarthy era to Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan to Donald Trump via Roger Stone and Associates and the late Jeffrey Epstein:



The Ghost of Roy Cohn

BY TERRY MELANSON · AUGUST 24, 2014

EXCERPT...

In an interview with former NYPD detective James Rothstein, this author discovered that such operations do exist and go far back into America’s secret history. Rothstein is no conspiracy theorist. He is a legend in American law enforcement and speaks from experience. Furthermore, he gave me two notable examples from his time as a detective. Rothstein had an opportunity to have a sit-down with infamous McCarthy committee counsel Roy Cohn. During this sit-down, Cohn admitted to Rothstein that he was part of a rather elaborate sexual blackmail operation that compromised politicians with child prostitutes (Rothstein, no pagination). Cohn told Rothstein that this operation was being carried out as part of the anticommunist crusade of the time (no pagination).

Rothstein also had an opportunity to speak to infamous Watergate burglar Frank Sturgis. During this conversation, Sturgis revealed one of the reasons for breaking into the Watergate. According to Sturgis, there was a “Pedophile Book” hidden away at the Democratic National Committee headquarters (no pagination). The book was supposed to have a list of pedophiles on the American political scene (no pagination). One can only imagine the power G. Gordon Liddy would have held over the government if he had such a book in his possession.

I asked Rothstein if Roy Cohn was a real anticommunist or just using the fear of communism to justify his sex ring. It seemed like a fair question. After all, Cohn had argued against homosexuals being schoolteachers when he himself was a homosexual. Perhaps Cohn’s hypocrisy extended to his anticommunism. Rothstein made it clear that Cohn was a genuine anticommunist (no pagination). Anticommunist sentiments aside, evidence suggests that the sex ring operation started by Cohn was used for more than fighting the threat of domestic communists. Fugitive ex-CIA officer Frank Terpil has claimed that sexual blackmailing operations directed by the CIA were intensive in Washington during the Watergate era (DeCamp 179). Terpil also asserts that his former partner, Ed Wilson, was coordinating one of these sexual blackmail operations (179). In a letter to author Jim Hougan, Terpil revealed Wilson’s modus operandi:

“Historically, one of Wilson’s Agency jobs was to subvert members of both houses [of Congress] by any means necessary…. Certain people could be easily coerced by living out their sexual fantasies in the flesh…. A remembrance of these occasions [was] permanently recorded via selected cameras…. The technicians in charge of filming… were TSD [Technical Services Division of the CIA]. The unwitting porno stars advanced in their political careers, some of [whom] may still be in office.” (Qtd. in DeCamp 179)

According to John DeCamp, a former Nebraska Senator and Vietnam War hero, Wilson’s operation was merely a continuation of the one set up by Cohn (179). When I asked James Rothstein if Palfrey’s outfit was a continuation of the sexual blackmail rings that began with Cohn, he answered in the affirmative (Rothstein, pagination). The NYPD veteran made it clear that Palfrey’s outfit could not exist in Washington unless it was a tool for the power elite and sinister factions of the intelligence community (no pagination). Somewhere in a Queens cemetery, the corpse of a high-powered attorney is smiling in his grave.

SOURCE:

https://www.conspiracyarchive.com/2014/08/24/the-ghost-of-roy-cohn/



The same Roy Cohn who taught Donald Drumpf also schooled Roger Stone and Jeffrey Epstein...



... Who knew what when? In Palo Alto, after Epstein’s conviction, he was a guest at a dinner for the MIT neuroscientist Ed Boyden that was hosted by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman. At the same dinner Elon Musk introduced Epstein to Mark Zuckerberg. Is money so powerful that it tramples all other considerations? As James Baldwin put it, “I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.”

One of the most remarkable moments in Tyrnauer’s documentary comes near the end, when it’s no longer possible to pretend that Cohn isn’t a liar and a fraud, when it’s no longer possible to deny that he lacks both shame and conscience. When Cohn was about to be disbarred in 1986 for defrauding his clients and for taking advantage of a dying and incompetent man, character witnesses began to emerge. There were letters to the court from William F. Buckley Jr., Barbara Walters, William Safire, and, of course, Trump, who wrote that Cohn “has been extremely loyal and extremely honest.” Were Cohn’s parties—was his protection—really that good?...

Source: https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/money-and-power/a29130905/roy-cohn-documentary-wheres-my-roy-cohn/



It’s conceivable Matt Gaetz got some learnin’, too.




getagrip_already

(14,708 posts)
5. lets not forget....
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 10:10 AM
Jul 2021

that tfg was so friggin dumb, he refused the secure phone the ss wanted him to use so he could have his preciuous on a standard commercial phone.

Who could possibly want to listen in on the microphone of the potus? What could go wrong there.....

Bernardo de La Paz

(48,988 posts)
7. I can believe he blackmails people like Sen Graham, but your OP does NOT make the case
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 10:56 AM
Jul 2021

Yes, I've heard how NSO works and how their malware takes over the whole phone.
Yes, I've heard it was used against Khashoggi.

Your last sentence is just speculation.

Do you have more than speculation?

Kid Berwyn

(14,876 posts)
13. Sorry, all I have is what's been in the newspapers.
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 11:41 AM
Jul 2021

Perhaps some authority with better investigative skills and subpoena power can take it further.

Old Okie

(142 posts)
8. Pegasus
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 11:07 AM
Jul 2021

The information about the over the thousands of phones (one estimate 0f 40,000) targeted by this Israeli spyware is important and should get more coverage om MSM. Your phone can be hacked w/o you doing anything although it reportedly does require someone to be close to you to link to the phone. Sure Trump's phone was hacked by multiple countries. Mexico was one of their biggest clients.
No link but check Guardian or Democracy Now sites.

gratuitous

(82,849 posts)
9. Keep emphasizing the links to the former guy
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 11:19 AM
Jul 2021

While he weighs in on matters of no concern to him (like the Cleveland major league franchise changing its mascot), the former guy has been curiously silent about how secure the phone was on which he stabbed out his nasty little tweets with his stubby little thumbs.

SleeplessinSoCal

(9,110 posts)
10. Autocracy, thy name is Republican
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 11:20 AM
Jul 2021

They aren't hiding it. But many who vote for them are clueless because between the lies and conspiracy theories, dont realize their leaders' bedfellows are our actual enemies. It also explains why the Republicans don't give a damn about infrastructure.

These reports help explain why the Olympics have lost their luster.

seta1950

(932 posts)
11. What is this
Mon Jul 26, 2021, 11:23 AM
Jul 2021

Even governments shouldn’t have this power, this company needs to be stopped, what is this the Soviet Union?

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