WhatsApp Says Journalists and Civil Society Members Were Targets of Israeli Spyware

Nearly 100 journalists and other members of civil society using WhatsApp, the popular messaging app owned by Meta, were targeted by spyware owned by Paragon, an Israeli maker of hacking software, the company alleged today. From a report: The journalists and other civil society members were being alerted of a possible breach of their devices, with WhatsApp telling the Guardian it had "high confidence" that the users in question had been targeted and "possibly compromised."

The company declined to disclose where the journalists and members of civil society were based, including whether they were based in the US. The company said it had sent Paragon a "cease and desist" letter and that it was exploring its legal options. WhatsApp said the alleged attacks had been disrupted in December and that it was not clear how long the targets may have been under threat.

Not possible

[50000BTU_barbecue]

It's the only democracy in the Middle East. Democracies don't do that, surely?

Re:

[Galactic Dominator]

Asking me to believe that is like asking me to believe they'd harvest corpses from an apartheid they themselves created.

Re: Not possible

[saloomy]

It absolutely blows my mind how I can read all of the comments in this thread, openly acknowledging all the evil shit Israel does, and we all know they have either bribed, bought, or blackmailed our political leaders who are strait up shipping Israel dollars by the billions for free, for nothing. We give them a "qualitative military edge" which they use to damn our morals and manipulate our population. They spit on christians and genocide muslims, believe Jesus is burning in hell in human excrement, that Mary was whore, and that all non-jewish humans are Goyim, at the same sanctity of a chicken. I could go on and on. They mutilate infant boys' penises and then suck on them with their mouths. The number of Herpes infections from Rabbis to babies is non-zero. I mean that alone should be an imprisonable offense.

But the worst part is it feels like they are basically above the law. Any time we criticize these insane practices by Israelis, the label anti-semetic gets cast. I will be honest, it feels like that is losing its effect. The only ones who seem to care anymore about that label are politicians (for political expediency) and journalists (who provide lip service to Israel at all times. Never mind the fact that a semite is one who speaks a Semitic language, and all speakers of Arabic qualify. This ethno-religion needs to go.

Re: Not possible

[drinkypoo]

All religions need to go. All of the popular ones have done terrible things and all of the unpopular ones are just waiting their turns.

Re:

[mjwx]

All religions need to go. All of the popular ones have done terrible things and all of the unpopular ones are just waiting their turns.

The problem is, if you destroyed religion it would be immediately replaced by something even more inexplicably naive. Look at the devotion people place in demagogues like Trump. They'll destroy their own lives to service him.

Religions need to be neutered, but this has to be done by reducing the need for religion, this can only be done with better education otherwise you're just replacing one religion with another... and as per the MAGA example, they're often worse than what came before, better the devil

Re:

[vladoshi]

So few seem to understand, only Christian cultures follow the New Testament with its treat people a you want to be treated teachings. Jews never stopped following the Old Testament*. You know, the bit full of all the racist, we are the master race, pro slavery, pro genocide, kill the gays and prostituting children is OK. That's the sermon every Sabbath for them.There is no forgiveness in Judaism.

*For the religious ignorant out there, the London Museum proved the Old Testament is a collection of 2 - 2,50

Re:

[Growlley]

It's nothing to do with religion - Its a case of (for want of a better word) they are savages but they are your savages,

Re:

[drinkypoo]

So few seem to understand, only Christian cultures follow the New Testament with its treat people a you want to be treated teachings

No, they very much do not. People do not want to hear about Jesus any more. They do not want to hear about giving all that they have to the poor. They do not want to hear about loving their neighbor, with no caveats about the color of their skin. Oh yeah, you can find a few old people trying to get into heaven who suddenly care, but most alleged Christians are practicing prosperity theology, which is literally (actually literally!) the most un-Christian thing possible.

I love the idea of Jesus, but I'm fucki

Re:

[saloomy]

Every Muslim genocider is now removed from the face of the earth. Saddam, Bashar Al-Assad, etc.. all gone. Israel kills as many as they can get away with and still maintain a US bodyguard at the UN, and still get 57 standing ovations from Congress per speech. It isnt that they are inept, its that they aren't.

Re:

[BeepBoopBeep]

Right, they dumb, should just resort to pen/paper/flying pigeons to communicate. Maybe even snail mail if they want faster delivery. Wait, can you hack an analog fax machine?

Re:

[joe_frisch]

The pigeons will somehow get infected with bird flu

THIS SIDE TOWARD EVERYONE

[Pseudonymous Powers]

Yeah, we're talking about a government who doesn't recognize orphans currently on breathing machines in the ICU as noncombatants. Why would they blink at bugging journalists or civilians?

Johnathan Pollard ...

[PPH]

... was just ahead of his time.

Whatsapp can get you killed

[echo123]

This has also happened a few years ago. Just ask Jamal Kashoggi [wikipedia.org]. Seriously folks, use Signal [wired.com].

  Jamal Khashoggi’s private WhatsApp messages may offer new clues to killing [cnn.com]

Re:

[ihavesaxwithcollies]

Khashoggi was Saudi Arabia, not Israel.

The Saudi's bribed Kushner and trump's daughter for looking the other way on the killings. [nytimes.com]

trump looked the other way on the killing of an American journalist. [nytimes.com]

Mr. Kushner played a leading role inside the Trump administration defending Crown Prince Mohammed after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that he had approved the 2018 killing and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi columnist for The Washington Post and resident of Virginia who had criticized the kingdom’s rulers.

Re:Whatsapp can get you killed

[ArchieBunker]

The thing I want to know about Hunter Biden's laptop is why the Saudis gave Jared Kushner $2 billion. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/j... [cbsnews.com]

Re:Whatsapp can get you killed

[echo123]

Khashoggi was Saudi Arabia, not Israel.

Jamal Khashoggi was killed with the help of software from the Israeli firm named NSO Group.

Unknown registers in iOS 4.0

[Mirnotoriety]

Remember that “flaw” in iOS 4.0 where remotely feeding a particular sequence to certain hardware registers gave total remote control of the phone. The Apple developers claimed they didn't know what they did or why they were on the chip.

Whatsapp proves Darwinism

[NotEmmanuelGoldstein]

WhatsApp has access to contact list, phone logs, passwords, accounts, send (anything) services, sync files and settings. That alone should be horrifying to anyone needing privacy: That Personally Identifying Information will be sold or stolen. Worse, it incentivizes state actors to copy the data directly from the local applet itself. No-one keeping sensitive files on their portable device should have Whatsapp or a dozen other applets (eg. Facebook and Messenger, TikTok) installed. The lack of privacy i