iCrew for EK Flight Deck crew finally!
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If you are worried about surveillance from iCrew or other UAE apps, you can install lookout.com for free on iOS or Android. They helped find the latest Apple security loophole so must be pretty good.
And just in case you thought you were paranoid, relax, you weren't. Apple fixes security flaw after UAE dissident's iPhone targeted | Reuters
And just in case you thought you were paranoid, relax, you weren't. Apple fixes security flaw after UAE dissident's iPhone targeted | Reuters
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Apple patches iPhone security after UAE activist targeted
#HumanRights
Flaws in software discovered after Emirati human rights lawyer alerted researchers to attempt to install Israeli firm's spyware on his phone
Ahmed Mansoor is an award-winning human rights lawyer (YouTube/MEE screen grab)
MEE staff's picture
MEE staff
Friday 26 August 2016 07:58 UTC
Last update: Friday 26 August 2016 8:51 UTC
23 12googleplus0 35
Topics: HumanRights
Tags: UAE, Ahmed Mansoor, Apple, Spyware
Show comments
Apple on Thursday released a security update to block spyware used to target an Emirati human rights activist which security experts say was developed by an Israeli “cyber-war” company.
Three flaws in Apple's iPhone software were discovered by security researchers Citizen Lab and Lookout after lawyer Ahmed Mansoor alerted them to several text messages he had received on 10 and 11 August promising to reveal details of torture victims in the UAE if he followed links in the message.
The links would have installed spyware which would have made the phone “a digital spy in his pocket,” Bill Marczak and John Scott-Railton, senior researchers at Citizen Lab, wrote in an extensive account of their investigation into the attempt to hack into Mansoor's phone.
“Once infected, Mansoor’s phone would have become a digital spy in his pocket, capable of employing his iPhone’s camera and microphone to snoop on activity in the vicinity of the device, recording his WhatsApp and Viber calls, logging messages sent in mobile chat apps, and tracking his movements,” they wrote.
“The attack on Mansoor is further evidence that 'lawful intercept' spyware has significant abuse potential, and that some governments cannot resist the temptation to use such tools against political opponents, journalists, and human rights defenders.”
The researchers said they believed the spyware had been created by NSO Group, an Israel-based company which has developed a government-exclusive “lawful intercept” spyware program called Pegasus. NSO Group is owned by a US venture capital firm, Francisco Partners Management.
A spokesperson for NSO Group told the Haaretz newspaper that the company could not confirm specific cases and said the company sold within export laws to government agencies which then operated the software.
“The agreements signed with the company's customers require that the company's products only be used in a lawful manner," he said. "Specifically, the products may only be used for the prevention and investigation of crimes."
Earlier this year Middle East Eye journalist Rori Donaghy described how he had been among more than 1,000 journalists and dissidents targeted in an attempt by the UAE to install spyware on their phones.
But Marczak and Scott-Railton said the technical sophistication of previous attacks “pales in comparison to the present attack”.
Mansoor is a prominent dissident in the UAE and last year won the Martin Ennals award, named after the former secretary general of Amnesty International, which has been described as the Nobel Prize for human rights.
Apple said in a statement: “We were made aware of this vulnerability and immediately fixed it with iOS 9.3.5. We advise all of our customers to always download the latest version of iOS to protect themselves against potential security exploits.”
I posted the full article as the website, surprise, surprise, is banned in a certain jurisdiction....
#HumanRights
Flaws in software discovered after Emirati human rights lawyer alerted researchers to attempt to install Israeli firm's spyware on his phone
Ahmed Mansoor is an award-winning human rights lawyer (YouTube/MEE screen grab)
MEE staff's picture
MEE staff
Friday 26 August 2016 07:58 UTC
Last update: Friday 26 August 2016 8:51 UTC
23 12googleplus0 35
Topics: HumanRights
Tags: UAE, Ahmed Mansoor, Apple, Spyware
Show comments
Apple on Thursday released a security update to block spyware used to target an Emirati human rights activist which security experts say was developed by an Israeli “cyber-war” company.
Three flaws in Apple's iPhone software were discovered by security researchers Citizen Lab and Lookout after lawyer Ahmed Mansoor alerted them to several text messages he had received on 10 and 11 August promising to reveal details of torture victims in the UAE if he followed links in the message.
The links would have installed spyware which would have made the phone “a digital spy in his pocket,” Bill Marczak and John Scott-Railton, senior researchers at Citizen Lab, wrote in an extensive account of their investigation into the attempt to hack into Mansoor's phone.
“Once infected, Mansoor’s phone would have become a digital spy in his pocket, capable of employing his iPhone’s camera and microphone to snoop on activity in the vicinity of the device, recording his WhatsApp and Viber calls, logging messages sent in mobile chat apps, and tracking his movements,” they wrote.
“The attack on Mansoor is further evidence that 'lawful intercept' spyware has significant abuse potential, and that some governments cannot resist the temptation to use such tools against political opponents, journalists, and human rights defenders.”
The researchers said they believed the spyware had been created by NSO Group, an Israel-based company which has developed a government-exclusive “lawful intercept” spyware program called Pegasus. NSO Group is owned by a US venture capital firm, Francisco Partners Management.
A spokesperson for NSO Group told the Haaretz newspaper that the company could not confirm specific cases and said the company sold within export laws to government agencies which then operated the software.
“The agreements signed with the company's customers require that the company's products only be used in a lawful manner," he said. "Specifically, the products may only be used for the prevention and investigation of crimes."
Earlier this year Middle East Eye journalist Rori Donaghy described how he had been among more than 1,000 journalists and dissidents targeted in an attempt by the UAE to install spyware on their phones.
But Marczak and Scott-Railton said the technical sophistication of previous attacks “pales in comparison to the present attack”.
Mansoor is a prominent dissident in the UAE and last year won the Martin Ennals award, named after the former secretary general of Amnesty International, which has been described as the Nobel Prize for human rights.
Apple said in a statement: “We were made aware of this vulnerability and immediately fixed it with iOS 9.3.5. We advise all of our customers to always download the latest version of iOS to protect themselves against potential security exploits.”
I posted the full article as the website, surprise, surprise, is banned in a certain jurisdiction....
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Credits to RT news for the following.
https://www.rt.com/uk/357339-uk-bae-uae-surveillance/
An extract of the link......The system sold by BAE to the UAE may, among other things, make “extraction of selected metadata and application content (eg. voices, videos, messages, attachments)” and are specifically designed to "chart an individual or group of people's social networks,” according to the EU list of products subject to export controls.
The sale has prompted concerns about what exactly the surveillance package will be used for, considering the UAE's reputation for monitoring, imprisoning, and torturing its critics.
Amnesty International has expressed fears that the system will be used to crack down on opponents of the country's government.
In fairness to the UAE and ALL governments, if the people or a country's citizens are illegally using social media in a negative way then the country certainly has the right to punish them.
Reds
J
https://www.rt.com/uk/357339-uk-bae-uae-surveillance/
An extract of the link......The system sold by BAE to the UAE may, among other things, make “extraction of selected metadata and application content (eg. voices, videos, messages, attachments)” and are specifically designed to "chart an individual or group of people's social networks,” according to the EU list of products subject to export controls.
The sale has prompted concerns about what exactly the surveillance package will be used for, considering the UAE's reputation for monitoring, imprisoning, and torturing its critics.
Amnesty International has expressed fears that the system will be used to crack down on opponents of the country's government.
In fairness to the UAE and ALL governments, if the people or a country's citizens are illegally using social media in a negative way then the country certainly has the right to punish them.
Reds
J
