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John Scott-Railton Profile picture
@jsrailton
Feb 20, 2021 • 7 tweets • 7 min read • Read on X
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BREAKING: @TheJusticeDept & @FBI investigating possible ties between Roger Stone, Ali Alexander, Alex Jones & #Capitol rioters.

Scoop by @hsu_spencer & @DevlinBarrett
Story: washingtonpost.com/local/legal-is…
1/ ImageImageImageImage
2/ Curating some threads.

Roger Stone: multiple #OathKeepers seen providing security to Roger Stone on Jan 5 & 6 went on to participate in the #Capitol siege per @nytimes.

3/ Ali Alexander marched to the #Capitol alongside Alex Jones. Ali was telling his followers to "Get down to the US CAPITOL! Orders from POTUS"
4/ Ali Alexander said that he alongside @RepGosar @RepMoBrooks @RepAndyBiggsAZ "schemed up" a way to put pressure on members of congress "hearing our loud war from outside"

Thankfully @jason_paladino grabbed a copy of the now-deleted video.
5/ Alex Jones marched to the #Capitol, telling everyone the were going there to meet Trump.

At the Capitol he seems to have gotten spooked. While still leading fiery chants, he also encouraged the crowd to 'be peaceful.'



6/ Alex Jones & Ali Alexander say they didn't plan *this outcome.*

Truth is: they riled up a mob with falsehoods & fiery rhetoric. Then lead it to the #Capitol. They bear a share of moral responsibility.

We'll see what justice system determines.

7/ A Roger Stone has also said..on Russian TV no less... that he played no role. We'll see.

He's already been caught in a falsehood about the 6th. Said he'd never left his hotel room on 6th.. But he was filmed outside w/ #OathKeepers.

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More from @jsrailton

John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Oct 17
NOW: US court permanently bans Pegasus spyware maker from hacking WhatsApp.

NSO Group can't help their customers hack @WhatsApp, etc ether. Must delete exploits...

Bad news for NSO. Huge competitive disadvantage for the notorious company.

Big additional win for WhatsApp 1 /Image
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2/ Although the massive punitive damages jury award against NSO Group ($167m) got reduced by the court, as is expected in cases where it is so large (to 9x compensatory damages)...

This is likely cold comfort to NSO since I think the injunction is going to have a huge impact on the value of NSO's spyware product.

Comes as NSO Group has been making noises about getting acquired by a US investor & some unnamed backers...Image
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3/ NSO also emerges from the @WhatsApp v NSO case with just an absolute TON of their business splashed all over the court records..

E.g. check out the filings from Sept 15th 2025: courtlistener.com/docket/1639534…
Read 5 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Oct 10
WOW: @Apple donating a thousand new #iPhone17 s to civil society at-risk from mercenary spyware.

Good. This will help get Apple's most secure devices to where they need to be..

Truth is: those at the greatest risk from spyware are often least able to afford more secure phones 1/Image
2/ Memory Integrity Enforcement = big deal Radically hardens iPhones from common attack vectors.

So it was a bittersweet to see this announcement and think "yeah it's going to be a long time before highest risk ppl can get them."..
3/ You're reading this on a device that is probably more secure thanks to the vigilance of an activist somewhere...

Seems @Apple recognizes this & also knows how much of a game changer getting their most secure devices into the hands of civil society could be.

security.apple.com/blog/apple-sec…
Read 4 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Oct 10
NEW: fresh trouble for mercenary spyware companies like NSO Group.

@Apple launching substantial bounties on the zero-click exploits that feed the supply chain behind products like Pegasus & Paragon's Graphite.

With bonuses, exploit developers can hit $5 million payouts. 1/Image
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2/ Apple is introducing Target Flags which speeds the process of getting exploits found & submitters rewarded.

This faster tempo is also a strike against the mercenary spyware ecosystem.

And the expanded categories also hit more widely against commercial surveillance vendors. Image
3/ If I contemplating investing in spyware companies I'd want to carefully evaluate whether their exploit pipeline can match what @apple just threw down.

security.apple.com/blog/apple-sec…
Read 4 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Oct 10
NEW: Pegasus spyware coming to America?

An ex-Adam Sandler producer is again trying acquire the notorious NSO Group.

Simonds fronted this before in 2023 & failed. But the backers of this idea haven't given up.

Where is the money coming from?

The unanswered questions should worry every American 1/Image
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2/ Back in 2023 it wasn't clear to me where the money backing Robert Simonds big spyware plans came from.

It still isn't.

So, whose money will actually be buying Pegasus?

And what is the end goal?

Report by @globesnews' @assafgi
globes.co.il/news/article.a…Image
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@globesnews @assafgi 3/ Robert Simonds on why🇨🇳#China's @TencentGlobal is a great owner of his @STXfilms.

He has zero experience with the spyware industry, but is once more showing a sudden focus on acquiring the company that makes #Pegasus.

Read 6 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Sep 2
NEW: foreign mercenary spyware is coming to the US.

ICE just quietly unsuspended contract with spyware maker #Paragon.

Remember them?

Caught earlier this year being used to hack journalists.

Bad move for Americans rights, national security & counterintelligence 1/Image
2/ #Paragon was co-founded in Israel in 2019 by ex head of Israel's NSA equivalent (Unit 8200) w/ major backing from former Israeli PM Ehud Barak.

Pitched themselves as stealthy & abuse-proof alternative to NSO Group's Pegasus.

& have been trying to get into the US market for years.Image
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3/For a long time all we knew about Paragon was their performance as a 'virtuous' spyware company with values.

All that came to a crashing halt in 2025 when they got very caught, helping customers hack targets across @WhatsApp.

WhatsApp did the right thing & notified users.

By @razhael
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Read 18 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Aug 29
NEW: @WhatsApp caught & fixed a sophisticated zero click attack...

Now they've published an advisory about it.

Say attackers combined the exploit with an @Apple vulnerability to hack a specific group of targets (i.e. this wasn't pointed at everybody)

Quick thoughts 1/Image
Wait, you say, haven't I heard of @WhatsApp zero-click exploits before?

You have.

A big user base makes a platform big target for exploit development.

Think about it from the attacker's perspective: an exploit against a popular messenger gives you potential access to a lot of devices.

You probably want maximum mileage from that painstakingly developed, weaponized, and tested exploit code you created/ purchased (or got bundled into your Pegasus subscription).
3/ The regular tempo of large platforms catching sophisticated exploits is a good sign.

They're paying attention & devoting resources to this growing category of highly targeted, sophisticated attacks.

But it's also a reminder of the magnitude of the threat out there...

whatsapp.com/security/advis…
Read 4 tweets

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