John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Sep 26, 2021 7 tweets 4 min read Read on X
Update: After being persuaded to leave hospital by an anti-vaxxer, Joe McCarron died.

2/ Two days after leaving the hospital, Joe was unable to breathe and returned in an ambulance.

His wife denounced the anti-vaxxers.

Joe died on Friday.

Further details via @IrishCentral
irishcentral.com/news/joe-mccar… Image
3/ The man encouraging Joe to leave is Antonio Mureddu.

He's uploaded a video with a member of his 'team' saying that they will try to "save as many lives" as they can. Image
4/ Antonio Mureddu repeatedly thanks Dolores Cahill helping to get Joe out of the hospital.

Cahill is a celebrity in the anti-mask & anti-vaccine movement.

Here she is appearing on @delbigtree's show, a major anti-vaccine misinformation source. Image
5/ What is Antonio Mureddu sharing online?

Ah, here's @realLizUSA, Trump's Spokeswoman...

(Redacted his account to not drive traffic) Image
6/ UPDATES:

- Police investigation underway
- May not have been an isolated incident
- Antonio Mureddu is an ex soldier & extreme right supporter

Story:
@ConorGallaghe_r
irishtimes.com/news/crime-and… ImageImageImage
7/ UPDATE: Even in death, anti-vaxxers would not give Joe McCarron's family peace.

They had to be asked to leave the funeral service...

Story: thejournal.ie/joe-mccarron-c… Image

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More from @jsrailton

Oct 23
NEW: Ex exec at premier private cyber weapons contractor to US accused of selling eight trade secrets to buyer in Russia.

I think this = exploits.

Very bad: at minimum would give adversaries a blueprint for detecting the tip of the spear of US/Allied cyber ops..

Wild story 1/Image
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2/ A watch collection studded with fake rolexes...

...is allegedly part of Peter "doogie" Williams haul from selling the hacking labs' secrets.

documentcloud.org/documents/2619…Image
3/ While doogie's watch collection is a joke, the questions couldn't be more serious:

Were cyberweapons paid for by American taxpayers also turned against us?

Were service members, officials, or civilians at physical risk? When was this breach first suspected? Who knew what? When?Image
Read 9 tweets
Oct 22
WARNING: seeing a lot of phishing against @Signal users.

Did you get a message like this?

Don't engage! It's an attempt to steal your account.

Your account is safe & chats are private, but you should use Signal's option to Report Spam & Block. 1/Image
2/ You can make the attackers life harder by clicking Report.

Background: Like any popular secure messaging app, Signal users sometimes get targeted by spam & phishing attempts.

Often, attackers guess large numbers of usernames / phone numbers & send out message requests...Image
3/ Take a minute to remind yourself how message requests & blocking work on @Signal.

FAQ: support.signal.org/hc/en-us/artic…Image
Image
Read 4 tweets
Oct 21
A "damaging" leak of tools from a five eyes exploit developer?

Concerning. We need to know what's under this rug.

Big picture: "trusted, vetted" private sector players offensive cyber are not immune to losing control of tooling... with national security consequences 1/
2/ If true, a tooling leak at boutique firm Trenchant wouldn't be the first time that exploits from commercial offensive vendors wind up... in the wrong place.

Many questions.

In the meantime. Remember when Russian APT29..was caught with exploits first used by NSO & Intellexa? Image
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3/ There will always be a push for states to turn towards the private sector to meet offensive needs.

It's appealing. For some, it's very lucrative.

But in practice it brings unavoidable counterintelligence & national security downside risk that shouldn't be downplayed.
Read 11 tweets
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
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
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
Image
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

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