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Hacking Lawyers or Journalists Is Totally Fine, Says Notorious Cyberweapons Firm (gizmodo.com)

Posted by msmash on from the 'end-justifies-means' dept.

The founder and CEO of NSO Group, the notorious Israeli hacking company with customers around the world, appeared on CBS's 60 Minutes Sunday night to defend the use of his company's tools in hacking and spying on lawyers, journalists, and minors when the country's customers determine the ends justify the means. From a report: NSO Group has reportedly sold hacking tools to dictators including those in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and across Central Asia -- a group of decision-makers whose track record includes numerous examples of human rights abuses and oppression of dissent. NSO's tools have been directly involved in the arrest of human rights activists and, in Mexico at least, spying on lawyers and journalists in an effort to catch the drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. "In order to catch El Chapo, for example, they had to intercept a journalist, an actress, and a lawyer," NSO Group founder Shalev Hulio told 60 minutes. "Now, by themselves, they are not criminals, right? But if they are in touch with a drug lord and in order to catch them, you need to intercept them, that's a decision an intelligence agency should get."

1 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. Re:We support these criminals? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    "There are many, many Christians who have serious problems with Israel's human rights record. We do not unanimously support Israel." AND JEWS ALSO, one might be forced to add as if omitted...

    Israel's government is not the seat of Judaism. Israel's record of human rights abuses ongoing undermines any US legitimacy as our "allies" undermine our positions on human rights efforts worldwide.

    This has nothing to do with religion, other than the apparent Trumptarded religious-esque belief that Likud=IRGUN can do no wrong. The fact is the current Israeli government has roots in a terrorist group.

    Once you understand that history, such questions become much less black and white. Israel's government is not some white knight in a world of human rights abuses, the opposite is becoming truer by the day.