Category: Israel
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ICE Uses Graphite Spyware
ICE Uses Graphite Spyware ICE has admitted that it uses spyware from the Israeli company Graphite. Bruce Schneier Go to bruce schneier
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Hacked App Part of US/Israeli Propaganda Campaign Against Iran
Hacked App Part of US/Israeli Propaganda Campaign Against Iran Wired has the story: Shortly after the first set of explosions, Iranians received bursts of notifications on their phones. They came not from the government advising caution, but from an apparently hacked prayer-timing app called BadeSaba Calendar that has been downloaded more than 5 million times…
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Israel Hacked Traffic Cameras in Iran
Israel Hacked Traffic Cameras in Iran Multiple news outlets are reporting on Israel’s hacking of Iranian traffic cameras and how they assisted with the killing of that country’s leadership. The New York Times has an on the intelligence operation more generally. Bruce Schneier Go to bruce schneier
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AI-Enabled Influence Operation Against Iran
AI-Enabled Influence Operation Against Iran Citizen Lab has uncovered a coordinated AI-enabled influence operation against the Iranian government, probably conducted by Israel. Key Findings A coordinated network of more than 50 inauthentic X profiles is conducting an AI-enabled influence operation. The network, which we refer to as “PRISONBREAK,” is spreading narratives inciting Iranian audiences to…
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Smashing Security podcast #435: Lights! Camera! Hacktion!
Smashing Security podcast #435: Lights! Camera! Hacktion! When “bad actors” stop being hackers and start being… actual actors. This week, Graham and special guest Jenny Radcliffe play “Hacker or Ham?” (yes, Steven Seagal, we’re looking at you), before diving into a campaign which saw an Iranian gang luring Israeli performers with fake casting calls for…
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Threat Intelligence Executive Report – Volume 2025, Number 4
Threat Intelligence Executive Report – Volume 2025, Number 4 This issue of the Counter Threat Unit’s high-level bimonthly report discusses noteworthy updates in the threat landscape during May and June mindimcdowell Go to sophos
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Paragon Spyware Used to Spy on European Journalists
Paragon Spyware Used to Spy on European Journalists Paragon is an Israeli spyware company, increasingly in the news (now that NSO Group seems to be waning). “Graphite” is the name of its product. Citizen Lab caught it spying on multiple European journalists with a zero-click iOS exploit: On April 29, 2025, a select group of…
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Court Rules Against NSO Group
Court Rules Against NSO Group The case is over: A jury has awarded WhatsApp $167 million in punitive damages in a case the company brought against Israel-based NSO Group for exploiting a software vulnerability that hijacked the phones of thousands of users. I’m sure it’ll be appealed. Everything always is. Bruce Schneier Go to bruce…
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Report on Paragon Spyware
Report on Paragon Spyware Citizen Lab has a new report on Paragon’s spyware: Key Findings: Introducing Paragon Solutions. Paragon Solutions was founded in Israel in 2019 and sells spyware called Graphite. The company differentiates itself by claiming it has safeguards to prevent the kinds of spyware abuses that NSO Group and other vendors are notorious…
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Spyware Maker NSO Group Found Liable for Hacking WhatsApp
Spyware Maker NSO Group Found Liable for Hacking WhatsApp A judge has found that NSO Group, maker of the Pegasus spyware, has violated the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by hacking WhatsApp in order to spy on people using it. Jon Penney and I wrote a legal paper on the case. Bruce Schneier Go…
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NSO Group Spies on People on Behalf of Governments
NSO Group Spies on People on Behalf of Governments The Israeli company NSO Group sells Pegasus spyware to countries around the world (including countries like Saudi Arabia, UAE, India, Mexico, Morocco and Rwanda). We assumed that those countries use the spyware themselves. Now we’ve learned that that’s not true: that NSO Group employees operate the…