from Hacker News

Israeli spyware company NSO Group placed on US blacklist

by sequence7 on 11/3/21, 2:46 PM with 23 comments

  • by sonjaqql on 11/3/21, 3:12 PM

    See episodes 99 and 100 on the Darknet Diaries [1] for background on NSO and Pegasus.

    [1] https://darknetdiaries.com/

  • by sofixa on 11/3/21, 3:13 PM

    Serves them right. I wonder how Israel would react here, and how the US squares blacklisting the company, but saying nothing of the Israeli MoD that had to authorise every sale due to export restrictions. If the company sold to bad actors, surely the MoD is at least partly to blame for allowing it?

  • by bberenberg on 11/3/21, 4:05 PM

  • by bink on 11/3/21, 4:42 PM

    There are several US companies that provide the same service, though they ostensibly operate under guidelines set by the US government.

    As someone who was busted for hacking way back in the day, it perturbs me just a little bit that I could legally develop an exploit and sell it to someone who I know will use it for illegal activity (but activity that the US govt. might approve of, regardless of legality), but if I myself use this exploit I'll be facing serious jail time. Or if I sell it to someone who isn't on an unofficial "approved" list of users.

  • by einpoklum on 11/3/21, 3:14 PM

    Call me when the US federal government and its bombing and drone assassination program runners are placed on the blacklist.