FBI confirms it obtained NSO’s Pegasus spyware… but never used it? Not so fast…
In today’s headlines: “FBI confirms it obtained NSO’s Pegasus spyware“.
by Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington @skirchy -Wed 2 Feb 2022 08.22 EST
“The FBI has confirmed that it obtained NSO Group’s powerful Pegasus spyware, suggesting that it bought access to the Israeli surveillance tool to “stay abreast of emerging technologies and tradecraft”.
“In a statement released to the Guardian, the bureau said it had procured a “limited licence” to access Pegasus for “product testing and evaluation only”, and suggested that its evaluation of the tool partly related to security concerns if the spyware fell into the “wrong hands”.
“The bureau also claimed it had never used Pegasus in support of any FBI investigation. “There was no operational use in support of any investigation, the FBI procured a limited license for product testing and evaluation only,” it said.
“The statement marks a direct acknowledgment by the FBI that it acquired Pegasus, one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking tools.
“The FBI’s procurement of Pegasus, which occurred in 2019 under the Trump administration, was first reported by the New York Times.
“It was a stunning revelation in part because the Biden administration has recently placed NSO on a commerce department blacklist, saying it had evidence that the company’s hacking tools had enabled governments around the world to conduct “transnational repression”, targeting dissidents and journalists.
“The Guardian and other media organizations have reported multiple cases in which security researchers say governments have used NSO’s tools to target American citizens around the world, including Carine Kanimba, the daughter of the jailed Rwandan dissident Paul Rusesabagina, and Lama Fakih, a senior staff member of Human Rights Watch in Beirut.
“Once deployed, the user of Pegasus spyware can take complete control of a person’s phone, accessing messages, intercepting phone calls and using the phone as a remote listening device.
“A person with close knowledge of the FBI deal, who spoke to the Guardian on the condition of anonymity, claimed that it occurred after a “long process” of negotiations between US officials and NSO.
“It is claimed one disagreement centered on how much control NSO would retain over its software. The source claimed that NSO usually kept sensors on its technology so that the company could be alerted in Israel if the technology was moved by a government client.
“But the source claimed the FBI did not want the technology to be fitted with sensors that would have allowed NSO to track its physical location.
“The source also claimed that the FBI did not want NSO’s own engineers to install the technology and did not want to integrate the spyware into its own systems. Ultimately, it is understood that NSO and the FBI agreed to keep the technology in a large container. NSO did not respond to a request for comment on these claims.
“The FBI was also concerned about possible “leakage” of any data to another foreign intelligence service, the source said.
“The source claimed the Pegasus licence was acquired by the FBI using a financial “vehicle” that was not easily identified as being linked to the bureau.”
Could this financial vehicle be crypto currency? Who is a wizard at crypto currency mining?
“The FBI did not respond to specific questions about its alleged concerns, the financial vehicle it used to procure the Pegasus license, or other details.
“In the end, the source claimed, the FBI did not actually use Pegasus. “They weren’t using it at all. Like, not even switching it on. But they kept paying for it, and they wanted to renew. It was a one-year test project and it cost about $5m [£3.7m], and they renewed for another $4m,” the source claimed. “But they didn’t use it.”
(Hello? Come on give me a break here. So, they drop $5 million for one year and drop another $4 million but NEVER USED IT? Yet it seems in the cyber world people are very aware of Pegasus and what it does. To say it has never been used is laughable at this point.)
The New York Times reported that NSO brought a version of Pegasus to New Jersey in June 2019, after the FBI had reportedly been offered a workaround by NSO that allowed a product called Phantom to “hack any number in the United States”. Without naming sources, the New York Times reported that NSO conducted demonstrations of Phantom to the FBI, which the newspaper said resulted in an alleged “attack” against a US phone number.
In a lawsuit it filed in 2019, WhatsApp accused NSO of sending malware to 1,400 of its users. The company has said about 100 of the individuals who were targeted were members of civil society, including journalists and activists. NSO has said in legal filings that even if WhatsApp’s allegations were true, it was acting as a “foreign agent” when its spyware was deployed against WhatsApp users, because its software is used by foreign governments who are meant to use its spyware to fight crime.
Read full story: FBI confirms it obtained NSO’s Pegasus spyware | FBI | The Guardian
It’s nothing new…just new to you.
Michael Flynn Worked With Foreign Cyberweapons Group That Sold Spyware Used Against Political Dissidents
By Paul Blumenthal and Jessica Schulberg, June 2017:
WASHINGTON ― While serving as a top campaign aide to Donald Trump, former national security adviser Michael Flynn made tens of thousands of dollars on the side advising a company that sold surveillance technology that repressive governments used to monitor activists and journalists. Article: Michael Flynn Worked With Foreign Cyberweapons Group That Sold Spyware Used Against Political Dissidents | HuffPost Latest News
QAnon Believers Don’t Know How To Handle Michael Flynn’s Ties To Spyware Firm Behind Pegasus
“So is General Flynn a bad guy then?” asked one QAnon believer.
By Matt Binder July 25, 2021
(Refresh what took place. They always rely on no one refreshing their memory.) Read article: QAnon Believers Don’t Know How To Handle Michael Flynn’s Ties To Spyware Firm Behind Pegasus – Tech (mashable.com)
Now all of the complaints of those working with Byrne and Flynn, accusing them of having their phones hacked with spyware make more sense. Now, I am not saying they did…I am just saying it makes more sense now that we know these things.
Which bring us to….
Flynn has some explaining to do. Article PDF from New York Times…(I know fake news, but how fake is all of this? It appears his past is what they fear, and the question remains… has he changed? You know them by the company they keep is the age old measuring stick.. PDF: 2017_06_18_NYT_HowMichaelFlynn’sDisdainForLimitsLedToLegalQuagmire.pdf (brown.edu)
KEEP ON PRESSING INTO THE KINGDOM – PRESS FOR TRUTH!
DIANNE
