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John Scott-Railton Profile picture
@jsrailton
Feb 15, 2023 • 11 tweets • 10 min read • Read on X
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WHOA: Team of Israeli ex-spies boast of manipulating 33 elections w/ #hacking & #bots.

Tricked into demoing #telegram hacking & bot army to undercover investigators.

By @skirchy @manisha_bot @davidtpegg @carolecadwalla & @burke_jason
theguardian.com/world/2023/feb… ImageImageImageImage
2/ “After you’ve created credibility, what do you do? Then you can manipulate"

Good to see @Meta take action on these accounts.

Honestly though we are at the absolute tip of the iceberg. ImageImage
3/ Here he is demoing access to the #Gmail of a purported key political insider in #Kenya just days before the election.

This tech & tactics is kerosene on the flames of democracy. Image
4/ “I know in some countries they believe #Telegram is safe. I will show you how safe it is”

Yikes.

Unclear how he is gaining access to these #Gmail & Telegram accounts, but the talk of #SS7 is a good hint.

And yet another reminder: SMS is not a safe second factor. ImageImage
5/ Great to see mercenary election manipulators exposed. Solid journalism.

Trust me, this is a window into a *much bigger industry* active in elections around the world.

So rare to see it caught.
6/ The fact that so much political activity happens on a handful of platforms makes the tooling for political manipulation really interoperable.

Also radically lowers barriers to entry.

Making mercenary election manipulation scaleable & easy to export. Image
7/ Of course, we don't know whether these guys have successfully changed the outcome of any election.

The guy here is also pretty clearly boasting & trying to sell.

But the mere fact of mercenary election manipulators running around is damaging, even when they don't win.
8/ Even if mercenary election manipulators don't successfully throw an election (e.g. successfully shift mass sentiment), bots, hacking & turbocharged dirty tricks can distort political culture.

Opposing parties have to adjust.

And the net result is harm to democracy.
9/ UPDATE: @haaretzcom reports the mercenary political manipulators targeted 🇺🇸US politicians.

Like @GavinNewsom in #California

Topic: #diablocanyon nuclear plant

Were taxpayer funds routed to #TeamJorge for that op?

STORY haaretz.com/israel-news/se… ImageImageImageImage
10/ Powerful coda to this remarkable story
11/ Really remarkable undercover work went into this story.

Huge credit to @omerbenj @GurMegiddo & @FredMetzo for pulling off such a feat.

These are paranoid people confessing to illegal things, it cannot have been easy.

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More from @jsrailton

John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Jun 18
🚨NEW REPORT: exposing a new hacking tactic.

🇷🇺Russian state-backed hackers used an App-Specific Password attack against prominent Russia expert @KeirGiles & others.

It's like they know what we all expect from them...and then did the opposite 1/

By us @citizenlab & @google's GTIGImage
Image
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2/ Let's begin: @KeirGiles gets a message purporting to be from @StateDept asking for a consultation.

The attackers send the message from a @gmail, but CC'd a bunch of email addresses @ state.gov.

Strong credibility signal to have a bunch of gov ppl on the CC line right?

Well, what the attackers were counting on is that the State Dept mailserver just accepts all email addresses without emitting a bounce.

So they seem to have just created some fake State Dept staff names and addresses.Image
3/ The attackers wait for the 2nd interaction to introduce the pivotal deception: getting @KeirGiles to 'connect to a secure platform.'

In the next days they patiently walk him through what they want him to do, even sending a very official looking (but fake) State Dept. documentImage
Image
Read 10 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Jun 12
🚨NEW INVESTIGATION: We just forensically unmasked #Paragon's Apple spyware.

Zero-click targets: Journalists. In 🇪🇺Europe.

Like 🇮🇹Italian reporter @ciropellegrino.

Reopen's #Italy's spyware scandal.

Follows our @citizenlab investigation of their Android spyware. 1/ Image
2/ Back in April, @Apple sent out a threat notification to a select group of users. Some got in touch with us @citizenlab to get analyzed.

They'd been targeted with a sophisticated zero-click attack (think: no click, no attachment to open, no mistake needed...).Image
3/ While my brilliant colleague @billmarczak was working on the phone of a prominent European journalist, he made a smoking gun discovery:

Requests to server matching our P1 fingerprint for #Paragon's graphite.

Paragon's 'undetectable' Apple spyware had just been found...Image
Image
Image
Read 13 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Jun 9
NEW: #Italy's spyware scandal just deepened.

Just days ago, #Italy claimed to not know who targeted Journalist @fcancellato with #Paragon spyware.

But now the spyware company is dropping heavy hints that this wasn't the full story👇
2/ Last week the #Italian government published a report acknowledging that they were responsible for certain #paragon spyware cases.

But left the politically trickiest case unanswered...
3/ Paragon frames itself as the anti-NSO... a "clean" spyware company.

But it didn't take long for them to get mired in an mess scandal in #Italy.

Now it looks like they are trying to find a way to fully wash their hands of the affair...

Read 7 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
Jun 6
NEW: Italy admits hacking activists with #Paragon spyware.

Blow to the reputation of a mercenary spyware company that marketed itself as an ethically clean anti-NSO.

But the official investigation doesn't answer a big mystery that's bad for #Italy & Paragon 1/..

By @omerbenjImage
2/ While Italy confirms the activist cases, they deny doing the politically explosive one:

Journalist & @fanpage editor Francesco Cancellato, whose reporting has tangled with the Prime Minister.

So who pointed Paragon against @fcancellato?

None of the answers are good... Image
3/ If we take the Italian government's claims to not know who targeted Italian journalist @fcancellato at face value...

Then it is a very bad look for #Paragon to have this case unexplained.

Who pointed their Graphite spyware at this European journalist?Image
Read 6 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
May 20
NEW: Pegasus spyware maker NSO Group just got publicly rebuffed by the US.

They came to DC to get off the US blacklist.

It did not work out. Thanks to their own actions.

You know about the human rights issues, but let me tell you why NSO is no friend to the United States. 1/ Image
2/ First, it's important to know that NSO was shady in how they set up the meeting.

For close observers, this is no surprise.

NSO constantly thinks that they can play the United States.

Part of what got them in trouble in the first place, but let's go deeper.Image
3/ First, NSO has consistently helped foreign governments target the US government.

And hack regular US citizens.

The first cases date back a decade to when the president of Panama used it to monitor the US embassy (and his mistress).

A decade later it was still happening...Image
Read 15 tweets
John Scott-Railton Profile picture
May 6
BREAKING: jury awards massive $167 million in punitive damages against spyware company NSO Group.

Precedent-setting win against the notorious #Pegasus spyware maker.

Congratulations to @WhatsApp on sticking this case through since 2019. Some thoughts 1/
2/ After years of every trick & delay tactic it only took a California jury one days deliberation to the heart of the matter:

NSO makes millions hacking mostly-🇺🇸American tech companies... so that dictators can hack dissidents.

Their conduct deserved to be punished.
3/ NSO Group emerges from the trial severely damaged.

The verdict ($167,256,000 punitive, $440K+ compensatory) is big enough to make your eyes water.

The case is ALSO a huge blow to NSO's secrecy, with their business splashed all over a courtroom.

This will scare customers...
Read 14 tweets

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