Nok et nytt israelsk spionprogram, kalt Reign, kan hacke en telefon og hente ut hva den vil av data. Selv krypterte tjenester knekker den. Reign er utviklet av en tidligere israelsk militær. Det brukes særlig mot journalister eller dissidenter i land hvor disse er utsatt.

“Security experts have warned about the emergence of previously unknown spyware with hacking capabilities comparable to NSO Group’s Pegasus that has already been used by clients to target journalists, political opposition figures and an employee of an NGO.

Researchers at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School said the spyware, which is made by an Israeli company called QuaDream, infected some victims’ phones by sending an iCloud calendar invitation to mobile users from operators of the spyware, who are likely to be government clients. Victims were not notified of the calendar invitations because they were sent for events logged in the past, making them invisible to the targets of the hacking. Such attacks are known as “zero-click” because users of the mobile phone do not have to click on any malicious link or take any action in order to be infected.”

Av klientlisten går det frem at det er autoritære regimer som benytter seg av tjenstene: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ghana, Israel, Mexico, Romania, Singapore, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Uzbekistan.

Israelerne har vært nødt for å utvikle disse applikasjonene for å outsmart deres fiender. Men når de kommersialiseres blir de etisk tvilsomme og de skader Israels renommé.

A phone infected with Reign, “can record conversations that happen in the proximity of the phone by controlling the phone’s recorder, read messages on encrypted apps, listen to phone conversations, and track a user’s location, according to Citizen Lab. Researchers found Reign can also be used to generate two-factor authentication codes on an iPhone to infiltrate a user’s iCloud account, allowing the spyware operator to exfiltrate data directly from the user’s iCloud.”

Fristelsen er selvfølgelig å tjene mange penger. Men også penger har en pris.

‘Reign’: New Israeli Spyware Targeting Journalists All Over the World