Lebanese army paid over 1M USD for spyware

AVOlio wroteMy only point to prove is, they can access your private life if they want.
And you cant do anything to hide it.

Joe wrote...in the world we are living in, there's very little your math equations can do about it.

We also live in a world where the laws of our life are defined by people who have the power, and I'm sure most of them don't care about what the people are demanding if it doesn't serve them grow stronger. So why don't we just accept it and turn into "sheeps", and never demand our rights and do something about it?

For me I see it as everyone is looking for his own interests, and the state only cares about making its job easier in controlling people. I'm sure the state (any state) won't be sad if it could turn all of the citizens into "sheeps" controlled in the direction of bringing prosperity to the state, and there's nothing wrong with that, but would anyone want to live this way? (Exhibit A: Communism)

The solution is that the population should push too, and look after their interests, against the "great monster" that is controlling us with his 2m/130kg slaves and his spying tools... At least we can do that by spreading awareness that what goes on the internet or on the smartphones, is actually going public. A lot of people have no idea about how the internet works and how it is possible to access their smartphone by other people across the globe. Also people and NGOs (well mostly outside Lebanon) are doing their best to protect the privacy of people on the internet. (And fighting for internet neutrality) I hope the GNU project dominate the applications market soon, it will surely improve the security and privacy of all user hosts connected to the internet. And the list goes on...

Recklessness and giving up would just make our (the common people) situation even worse, and especially when people who are geeks and interested in these things are the ones giving up to the "great monster".

I'm not going to be Leonidas and start my 300 army, but I'm never going to go silent when the state pushes me to become a "sheep" (and most will argue that people are "sheeps" even if they want to deny it, but who wants to be a "sheep", let him accept it alone), and I know my values, and I believe that evolution will just accept people with good values to survive (people filled with hatred already started killing each others), and it may sounds corny or I may sound like a dreamer, but I will live my life playing my role in making this world a place for freedom, wisdom, justice, and love, and I know we won't be there if we're "sheeps" and "robots" controlled by people in power. The history proved that a person will go crazy when he has great powers.

P.S: I'm sorry if this got out of the technical and geeky side of the topic, but this had to be said.

ironman wrote And this was the worst experience i ever had in my life.

That sounds pretty bad, I'm sorry it happened to you.

ironman wrote@geekevo,

Well a company i used to work for, and had problems with, issued a case against me and several coworkers to the "Jara2em Ma3loumetiyye" thing,
i was called to go there (they said it's an issue of an hour)... i went, without a lawyer, because they said they will just ask me some questions.

And this was the worst experience i ever had in my life.

After asking me the questions, and answering correctly (i was the good guy), they said i am lying etc, and they will beat me till i say the truth, i was like LOL ok.

Then they went to my house, took my laptop, forced me to give them their password, they went file by file...

I think you got the point, if you need more info, i can give you the info in private

Concerning E-Laws,,, well there is a big debate about this subject, especially about this "ma3loumetiyye thing", they have guns, not skills, and they force you to do whatever they want, by the usual pressure that they do, i was like in a room alone for like 2 hours, and one guy smoking 24/7, i was like am going to die from the smokes alone.

You are not the first person I've heard from who has gone through something like this. I'm sorry this happened to you. I know of a story that happened to someone a few years ago. Basically, they went to his house and completely ransacked it. Then they threatened his life and he had to leave to somewhere in South America, maybe Brazil, I don't remember.

I don't want any kind of technology in the hands of filthy people like this. This is unfortunately a symptom of a weak government and a failing state. The police here are above the law and I have no doubt that such technology is not guaranteed to be used in a moral and lawful way.

When I was mentioning how such tech is not necessarily a bad thing if it is used in the right way, I meant by law-abiding, just police and not street thugs in uniform. Sorry again about your experience.

Just a small hint about what happened with me: i had a MAC, when they got it, they didn't know how to use it, so they asked me to go through the file manager so they can check the files.

Those are the people with guns....

Just watch out guys, and if any of you is asked to go there, get a lawyer, it will save you a lot of trouble.

So is the best protection keeping all programs updated and using vpn+tor combination?

Ripped off or money laundering.

I knew the claims were to good to be true.

ILIA_93 wroteFor me I see it as everyone is looking for his own interests, and the state only cares about making its job easier in controlling people. I'm sure the state (any state) won't be sad if it could turn all of the citizens into "sheeps" controlled in the direction of bringing prosperity to the state, and there's nothing wrong with that, but would anyone want to live this way? (Exhibit A: Communism)

Communism makes people sheep ? I think you're mistaking it for Fascism.

rolf wroteRipped off or money laundering.

I can't possibly understand how it could be money laundering when there's an invoice in the hackingteam database for the Lebanese army paying them $1M.

Searching through the email on wikileaks i found this one, where it even states the price is € 1.438.530,00 if i am correct.

https://wikileaks.org/hackingteam/emails/emailid/231025

I guess I'm going to start developing fully-featured RATS.

I'm pretty sure companies selling hugely overpriced products that have little real value (and cannot be resold) is one way of laundering dirty money.
But in any case you might be right, and the Army is not exactly the sort of place where you'd have such schemes because it's a public institution.

It might be another form of corruption as well. In any of these someone in the army would have secret links with someone in that Italian company.