The Pegasus Project

[Sheilbh]

Hugely important story by the Guardian and other media organisations:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/18/revealed-leak-uncovers-global-abuse-of-cyber-surveillance-weapon-nso-group-pegasus

Basically an Israeli surveillance company's hacking software that it says is only provided for well-vetted state actors has been used by authoritarian/failing democratic states to spy on NGOs, media, activists, lawyers - as well as family members of the ruling elite etc. It seems to load on a phone through phishing and enables access to all data on an individual's phone. The countries identified are Mexico (the biggest user), Morocco, Hungary, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and India.

One telling story:

The phone number of a freelance Mexican reporter, Cecilio Pineda Birto, was found in the list, apparently of interest to a Mexican client in the weeks leading up to his murder, when his killers were able to locate him at a carwash. His phone has never been found so no forensic analysis has been possible to establish whether it was infected.

NSO said that even if Pineda's phone had been targeted, it did not mean data collected from his phone contributed in any way to his death, stressing governments could have discovered his location by other means. He was among at least 25 Mexican journalists apparently selected as candidates for surveillance over a two-year period.

Lots of stories about each country. Here's the one on Hungary:
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/jul/18/viktor-orban-using-nso-spyware-in-assault-on-media-data-suggests

I imagine there will be additional details in different national media as this is an international project.

[Iormlund]

I'm afraid most people don't really give a shit about this sort of stuff. That was my sad conclusion after the Snowden affair.

[DontSayBanana]

Unfortunately, NSO Group has been brushing off bad press about this for quite some time- I don't see things changing for the better in the short term; take VICE... they've literally been sounding the alarm on this company for years: https://www.vice.com/en/topic/nso-group.

[garbon]

I'm not sure what to say. This seems terrible.

[Tamas]

Well within Hungary the reaction will be of course nill.

The media is overwhelmingly dominated by Orban's trusted oligarchs, so this won't even be mentioned. And also, this just confirms the nature of the regime that it's opponents have known to be the case, so there won't be a mass shock on a scale that would trigger big enough protests for something to happen.

What would be needed is for this app to cause extra cost on the targets' mobile bills. Then the country would be set aflame. By far the biggest protest of the Orban regime was when some idiot in the government proposed a punitively high tax on Internet traffic.

[Tamas]

BTW I am not surprised Direkt36 was targeted by this in Hungary. They are probably the best investigative journalist crew left (out of a total of maybe 3), and have steadily supplied a stream of  outrageous scandals reliable ignored by the Hungarian public.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

I'm afraid most people don't really give a shit about this sort of stuff. That was my sad conclusion after the Snowden affair.

Snowden didn't help his case by going to Russia...

as for the governments: they'll make some fuss and that'll be it. Bussiness back as usual.

[Tamas]

Just to show it's not that hard to make it to this leaked list.

There's an interview on 444.hu with Adrien Beauduin, a Belgian uni student who was at CEU at the time the government was chasing it away so he took part in the protests.

He happened to be standing close to the Christmas decoration on Parliament's Kossuth square that was set aflame by the protesters (he claims he wasn't one of the "arsonists") so he was arrested.

He and 4 others arrested were all accused of assault on a police officer, but, allegedly, the report on all 5 of them was a copy-paste job "with his left hand hit the.." etc. Eventually all charges were dropped before it got to a trial.

One thing this shows me is that maybe Orban or at least his lieutenants actually believe the "foreigners conspiring to bring down Hungary" nonsense they are spreading. Why else try to spy on a random Belgian uni student?

[Solmyr]

Sooner or later, dictators start believing the claims they invent to keep power. It can be seen with Putin, too.

[Tamas]

At least it's getting traction as source of memes:



Facebook privacy settings:
- Everyone
- Friends (and Mr. Prime Minister)
- Specific friends (and Mr. Prime Minister)
- Just you (and Mr. Prime Minister)




-Which number do I call if I want to talk to the government
-Whichever

(I think this TV series is criminally underrated in the UK BTW)

[Sheilbh]

What TV series is that? I don't recongise it at all

[Jacob]

What TV series is that? I don't recongise it at all

emeleten a földszinten

[Tamas]

What TV series is that? I don't recongise it at all

emeleten a földszinten

no

It's "You Rang, M'Lord?"

I admit the Hungarian dubbing gives it an extra level of quality but still even in original its pretty nice.

My theory, that it was way, way too honest about the class structure of Britain. People want to see Downton Abbey, not a black-humoured honest take on the aristocrats looking down on the servants who are looking down on the kitchen help.

[Sheilbh]

no

It's "You Rang, M'Lord?"

I admit the Hungarian dubbing gives it an extra level of quality but still even in original its pretty nice.

My theory, that it was way, way too honest about the class structure of Britain. People want to see Downton Abbey, not a black-humoured honest take on the aristocrats looking down on the servants who are looking down on the kitchen help.

Never heard of it. But it's by Croft and Perry (like Dad's Army, Hi-de-Hi! and less loveable, more racist It Ain't Half Hot Mum). Apparently the first British serial with a lesbian character Looking at the image I thought it might be Upstairs, Downstairs.

Apparently the reason the writers think it's rarely repeated is it's BBC but 50 minutes so doesn't really fit into an easy timeslot - and I have to be honest the idea of a 50 minute comedy with real plot starring Paul Shane and Su Pollard is extraordinary

Interesting note on popularity in Hungary:

The show has acquired a major following in Hungary where a version dubbed into Hungarian became popular following the fall of Communism in the country. A fan club has nearly 23,000 followers and in 2018, a celebratory banquet was held in Budapest attended by actors Jeffrey Holland, Michael Knowles, Catherine Rabett, Susie Brann and Amanda Bellamy to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the pilot episode.[19]

I always find the international afterlives of UK comedies kind of weird/interesting. Like I've never seen Benny Hill because by the 80s it was considered un-PC (and ratings were falling) so it was cancelled and has never been repeated - but I know it exists on international broadcasts and it had a following/was played in the US.

None quite as extraordinary as Norman Wisdom who has a huge following in Albania - because like Tamas says - it had the correct class analysis of a loveable working class character normally outwitting effete aristocrats, so it was one of the few foreign programs allowed by Hoxha. Wisdom's now been given honourary Albanian citizenship and travelled with the England team for a friendly where he was the bigger centre of attention than David Beckham

[Duque de Bragança]

Benny Hills still had re-runs in the early '90s in France.

As for the Pegasus project in France, Morocco being involved means a political storm over here.
Éric Zemmour, the arch-nemesis of not just the woke around here, was among the spied so I am curious if the protestations to the Moroccan government will include him.