[HN Gopher] Hooking Candiru: Another mercenary spyware vendor co...
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       Hooking Candiru: Another mercenary spyware vendor comes into focus
        
       Author : colinprince
       Score  : 149 points
       Date   : 2021-07-16 13:21 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (citizenlab.ca)
 (TXT) w3m dump (citizenlab.ca)
        
       | weeweww32 wrote:
       | oy vey
        
       | 1cvmask wrote:
       | The other Israeli hacking company was NSO Group which was
       | allegedly used in the killing of Khashoggi:
       | 
       | https://www.business-humanrights.org/en/latest-news/nso-grou...
        
         | srean wrote:
         | Also for targeting activists in India to arrest them on trumped
         | charges and planted evidence on the Bhima Koregaon case. All of
         | them are being held without trial -- a norm of sorts for the
         | current Indian government
         | 
         | The held include activists, reputed professors from IIT.
         | 
         | https://citizenlab.ca/?s=koregaon
         | 
         | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/04/20/india-bhima-...
         | (paywalled)
         | 
         | https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/07/06/bhima-korega...
         | (paywalled)
         | 
         | https://www.washingtonpost.com/context/new-forensics-report-...
         | (downloadable report)
        
       | hkon wrote:
       | I am curious as to how exactly the spyware got on the victims
       | computers. In the Microsoft blog, they mention a chain of
       | exploits. But it could be interesting to understand how they are
       | able to target an individual system with such precision.
        
       | afrcnc wrote:
       | Can we submit non-paywalled links. Like the actual source:
       | https://citizenlab.ca/2021/07/hooking-candiru-another-mercen...
        
         | floatingatoll wrote:
         | The mods have since responded that they've fixed it, but in the
         | future, if you'd like them to respond sooner, you can email
         | them about stuff like this using the footer contact link and
         | they can usually fix it rapidly.
        
       | qwerty456127 wrote:
       | As a society, we absolutely have to start actively developing
       | software (OS in the first place) and hardware with privacy as a
       | topmost priority. Using Windows and common Windows apps leaves
       | bizarrely many tracks on the computer. Just take a look at one of
       | the many resources on "computer forensics" and you'll see.
       | 
       | And I doubt this can be addressed without decreasing complexity.
        
         | deregulateMed wrote:
         | I wonder if those supposedly secure Linux distros are actually
         | secure.
         | 
         | Anything from MS, Google, and Apple cannot be trusted.
        
           | ipaddr wrote:
           | kde linux is popular.
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | dogma1138 wrote:
       | Microsoft didn't attributed it to an Israeli firm, Citizen Lab
       | did.
       | 
       | Another article on this also showed pricing reported by Citizen
       | Lab, $1.8 per 10 devices if this is true this market will be
       | exploding unless it will be heavily regulated..
        
         | dang wrote:
         | We've changed the title from "Israeli Firm's Spyware Used
         | Against Dissidents, Microsoft Says" as part of changing the URL
         | from
         | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-15/israeli-f...
         | to the report it points to.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | dogleash wrote:
         | >Microsoft doesn't name Candiru but instead refers to an
         | "Israel-based private sector offensive actor" it calls Sourgum.
         | 
         | https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2021/07/15/cyberwe...
         | 
         | >We believe Sourgum is an Israel-based private sector offensive
         | actor or PSOA.
        
           | dogma1138 wrote:
           | > We believe Sourgum is an Israel-based private sector
           | offensive actor or PSOA. Citizen Lab has identified the group
           | as a company called Candiru. Sourgum generally sells
           | cyberweapons that enable its customers, often government
           | agencies around the world, to hack into their targets'
           | computers, phones, network infrastructure and internet-
           | connected devices.
        
           | ManBlanket wrote:
           | I just want to point out Candiru is a fish that supposedly
           | wriggles up someone's ding-dong when they pee in Amazonian
           | rivers while swimming? I'm... gravely... skeptical that it
           | ever actually happens, if I were to guess it's one of those,
           | "I fell on it while getting dressed" situations that are
           | occasionally explained to amused ER doctors. Maybe even one
           | of those, "they put a chemical in the pool that makes the
           | water turn purple when you pee." Whatever the deal with
           | Candiru is, at some point someone suggested naming their
           | spyware after the urethra fish. They might be making the
           | world a worse place, but you can't say they don't have a
           | sense of humor about it.
        
             | randomhodler84 wrote:
             | Oh I don't see humor in it at all. These guys picked the
             | name of something that crawls up your urethra because that
             | is how they saw themselves. These are Monsters, not people.
        
               | [deleted]
        
       | tgragnato wrote:
       | Funny thing is that they used zcombinator[.]co for one of their
       | C2
        
       | colinprince wrote:
       | Let's link to a non-paywalled article:
       | https://citizenlab.ca/2021/07/hooking-candiru-another-mercen...
       | 
       | (instead of:
       | https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-15/israeli-f... )
        
         | dang wrote:
         | Changed.
        
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       (page generated 2021-07-16 23:00 UTC)