6/ Almost immediately after the WhatsApp notifications, we started learning about the targets. They weren't the supposed serious criminals... They were Journalists... human rights defenders...groups working on sea rescue of migrants.. etc By@skirchy.bsky.social www.theguardian.com/technology/2...
7/ Cases kept coming & after initial denials.. Italy had a major national scandal about surveillance overreach & spyware abuses. Ultimately the dust & a parliamentary intelligence oversight committee investigation led #Paragon & Italy parting ways... www.reuters.com/sustainabili...
8/ The Italian scandal didn't finish cleanly. While the Italian authorities admitted to targeting activists, they didn't take responsibility for hacking the journalists. Meaning that some of the most troubling Paragon victims are still seeking answers.
9/ Fast forwards to last weekend and the US government abruptly reopened the door for the spyware company: "This contract is for a fully configured proprietary solution including license, hardware, warranty, maintenance, and training. This modification is to lift the stop work order."
10/ After 14 years of working on this topic, I tell you this with confidence: Highly invasive mercenary spyware is a power abuse machine. It's incompatible with Americans constitutional rights and freedoms. And our legal system and civil society is not prepared for the next chapter.
Universal surveillance and the threat of it being randomly targeted by sociopaths and their slop machines is the intimidation fascists require for their total control. bsky.app/profile/jsra...
11/ What can you do? Go call your member of Congress. Ask them to get briefed. Ask for oversight. And on a personal level? Apple's Lockdown Mode & Android Advanced Protection both offer some serious security benefits but neither is a silver bullet..
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12/ Finally & unfortunately: as of right now I am pretty confident that no publicly available / commercially developed third party tool can reliably detect Paragon spyware. Beware a false sense of security.
13/ The US uses also Paragon's tech at their counterintelligence peril. Past analyses by the US highlighted how foreign spyware acquisition introduce national security & counterintelligence downsides when the company's technology is developed by foreign companies & foreign gov adjacent individuals.
I looked on your website and didn’t see this there as an article, did I somehow miss it?
AI is already making malware and viruses. That's next. www.anthropic.com/news/detecti...
So this will possibly rely on people knowing their typical data useage and observing any increases. Factory reset should remove it, correct?
Using a non Android or IoS device might actually keep you out of its cross hairs. Although those devices might not have such well tested security to resist direct attacks but would at least be more work to automate
How do things like Signal and Germ DM fare against this spyware?
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Given that Palantir is centralizing most if not all of everyone's personal data the government collects in addition to using its own spying tools, adding Paragon's spyware is only going to solidify the Trump administration's efforts to become a Big Brother government.
Is Paragon's spyware going to be integrated into ICE's Palantir network?