Slashdot Mirror
Saudi Arabia Almost Bought Hacking Team
itwbennett writes: If hacked emails posted by WikiLeaks are to be believed, the Saudi Arabian government came close to buying control of Italian surveillance software company Hacking Team, Philip Wilan reports. 'The negotiations were handled by Wafic Said, a Syrian-born businessman based in the U.K. who is a close friend of the Saudi royal family, and also involved Ronald Spogli, a former U.S. ambassador to Italy, who had an indirect investment in Hacking Team,' writes Wilan. The deal collapsed in early 2014.
Saudi Arabia almost buys a lot of stuff. When it comes time to actually put money on the table after endless demos and enthusiastic discussions, the deals suddenly sour. It's their way.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
They'd buy it because of their horrible track record on human rights. The Saudi government is about to execute a man for participating in the Arab Spring protests.. that, and because his uncle isn't from the same side of Islam as the current regime. Protests like the ones they're sentencing someone to death for often get organized online over social media - and what better way to quash dissent than to monitor social media and put spyware on the computers of anyone even suspected of planning a protest, then jail and/or murder them to silence them?
Even if the Saudi government did not use it for some reason, there are plenty of regimes in the Middle East (Iran, for one) that would be happy to purchase such software from the Saudi government in order to crack down on their own dissidents, especially considering that the United States and Europe would have qualms about selling to them.
Saudis like to flash their cash, not spend it.
I bet the "negotiation" went like this:
Said! What's the internet? Do I need to control it? Go buy me someone who can control the internet for me, then buy me the internet.
OK BOSS!
Hey, Hacking Team, I'm Said a friend of the royal Saudi family. The king dickshit wants to buy you!
How much? What do we have to do?
King dickshit has very many billions of dollars and will pay you any price! All you have to do is be our slaves, essentially.
How many billions, exactly?
Boss! They want to know how many billions you'll give them!
What? Are you still talking about that internet thing? I'm bored of that, go buy me another solid gold horse, I have a formal engagement tonight and I need to look fashionable!