“What they’re facing today will be faced by ordinary users tomorrow.This week, Apple rushed out a patch for its iOS 7 and iOS 6 operating systems to fix a serious security issue.īefore I explain further, let me just say this: If you’ve gotten the prompt to update and you haven’t, do it now. “The targeting of these activists and dissidents is a taste of what’s to come,” Mr. Mansoor protect his digital security, said that the surveillance experienced by Mr. “I am the guinea pig.”īill Marczak, the researcher at Citizen Lab who has been helping Mr. “I guess I am their regular customer,” he said. Mansoor said in an interview that the discoveries were a sad reminder that no matter what he does to protect his devices and digital security, he will continue to be a target for companies that provide this sort of spying technology. In 2014, NSO Group sold a majority stake to San Francisco-based private equity firm Francisco Partners Management LLC for $120 million. He would not say if the software is used by government agencies in the U.A.E. Dahbash added that NSO Group does not operate any of its systems and requires that its customers use its products in a “lawful manner.” “Specifically,” he said, “the products may only be used for the prevention and investigation of crimes.” Zamir Dahbash, an NSO Group spokesman, said in an email, “The company sells only to authorized governmental agencies, and fully complies with strict export control laws and regulations.” In several cases, NSO Group’s tools had been crafted to target users in Yemen, Turkey, Mozambique, Mexico, Kenya and the U.A.E. Mansoor, were Rafael Cabrera, a Mexican journalist, who broke a story on conflicts of interest among Mexico’s ruling family. Apple recently began a “bug bounty” program to pay hackers who report vulnerabilities in its systems.Īmong the other NSO targets, besides Mr. have told Apple how this was accomplished.Īpple’s software update patches the NSO Group’s exploits, but it is unclear whether the company has patched the vulnerabilities used by the F.B.I. to crack into an iPhone used by one of the shooters in last year’s mass killings in San Bernardino, Calif. Last year, a similar zero-day exploit in Apple’s iOS software was sold to Zerodium, a Washington buyer and seller of zero-days, for $1 million.Įarlier this year, James Comey, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, announced that his agency had paid hackers who found a way for the F.B.I. Strewn throughout the spyware code were references to Pegasus, the name of an NSO Group spyware product.įlaws in Apple’s iOS software are sold at a premium. The researchers found it was connecting to 200 servers, several of them registered to the NSO Group. This latest effort was far more sophisticated than what was found aimed at his devices before. Mansoor passed the messages to researchers at the Citizen Lab, who confirmed they were an attempt to track him through his iPhone. The messages purported to contain information about the torture of U.A.E. 10, when Ahmed Mansoor, a prominent human rights activist in the United Arab Emirates, who has been tracked by surveillance software several times, began receiving suspicious text messages. But until this month, it was not clear how exactly the group was monitoring its targets, or who exactly it was monitoring.Ī clearer picture began to emerge on Aug. In interviews and manuals, the NSO Group’s executives have long boasted that their spyware worked like a “ghost,” tracking the moves and keystrokes of its targets, without leaving a trace. “We advise all of our customers to always download the latest version of iOS to protect themselves against potential security exploits,” said Fred Sainz, a company spokesman.
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