If Cellebrite sounds familiar, that’s because the name of this Israeli company came up during Apple’s standoff with the FBI over breaking iPhone encryption. The agency managed to crack the San Bernardino iPhone with the help of an undisclosed company.
NSO Group, an Israeli technology company that created spyware that was found being used to compromise a prominent United Arab Emirates activist’s iPhone, had sold the software to an Arab company with the express permission of the Israeli Defense Ministry.
Israeli company NSO Group Technologies Ltd., which develops sophisticated mobile phone hacking software, capable of extracting information from any mobile device, anywhere, now finds itself the victim of a ‘hack’ of a different kind.
The discovery of sophisticated spyware to infiltrate and remotely take control of iPhones without leaving a trace has put a spotlight on Israel’s secretive surveillance industry, considered among the world’s most advanced.
Hacking technology devices have long been a hot commodity, with a supply-demand market just like any other.
When Apple rushed an urgent security update out to its iPhone and iPad users on Thursday, it was accompanied by an uncomfortable story.
On August 10, Ahmed Mansoor, a human rights activist in the United Arab Emirates, received a text message that invited him to click on a link that would reveal new information about torture in jails in his country. Mansoor, who had been a repeated target of the regime, grew suspicious and turned over the message…