Tim Starks

2 weeks ago | cyberscoop.com | Tim Starks

A panel of U.S. judges considering an appeal of a ruling that went against El Salvadoran journalists suing NSO Group over alleged infections of their phone by the company’s Pegasus spyware appeared more skeptical Thursday of the vendor’s arguments than those of the reporters. Judge James Donato of the District Court for the Northern District of California granted NSO Group’s motion to dismiss the suit last year in Dada et al v.

2 weeks ago | cyberscoop.com | Tim Starks

Cybersecurity professionals who participated in discussions over a code of conduct for nations to use commercial hacking tools said the final voluntary guidelines offer modest promise, even if they fall short of what some wanted. The next step for the joint France/U.K.-led , which last week got 21 signatories to the code, is to establish parallel guidance for industry.

2 weeks ago | cyberscoop.com | Tim Starks

Two spyware variants are targeting Uyghur, Taiwanese and Tibetan groups and individuals, the U.K.’s National Cyber Security Centre warned in a joint alert Wednesday with Western allies. Cybersecurity researchers have previously linked the BADBAZAAR and MOONSHINE spyware to the Chinese government. The variants mentioned in Wednesday’s alert trojanize apps that are of interest to the target communities, such as a Uyghur language Quran app, and have appeared in official app stores.

2 weeks ago | cyberscoop.com | Tim Starks

Lawmakers on the House Judiciary Committee say privacy protections under a bill Congress passed to re-up a major surveillance law aren’t strong enough, and are gearing up for additional changes for when the legislation is set to expire next year.

2 weeks ago | cyberscoop.com | Tim Starks

Twenty-one nations signed on to a voluntary accord last week in Paris to govern the use of commercial hacking tools commonly known as spyware, after more than a year of work on the agreement. The Pall Mall Process, or Code of Practices for States, has four pillars for the responsible use of the surveillance tech, which it labels “commercial cyber intrusion capabilities” (CCICs): accountability, precision, transparency and oversight.