Government-grade spyware hits Mexican advocates of soda tax

Re:Government-grade spyware hits Mexican advocates of soda tax by thinkcontext on Monday February 13, 2017 @11:43AM (#13636601)

Using the software in a way that reveals its use seems ham-handed, perhaps its not a sophisticated actor using it in this instance.

But that is in some ways even more disturbing. It shows the capability is so available that even the unsophisticated are able to use it.

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Re:Government-grade spyware hits Mexican advocates of soda tax by coldtea on Monday February 13, 2017 @02:25PM (#13637957)

>Using the software in a way that reveals its use seems ham-handed, perhaps its not a sophisticated actor using it in this instance.

Or the message they want to pass is "we're tracking you", and that's more powerful than anything to get from actual tracking.

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Re:Government-grade spyware hits Mexican advocates of soda tax by retSava on Monday February 13, 2017 @02:20PM (#13637918)

Yeah, and the alleged hooks sounds obvious. FTA, it's close to Nigerian prince-quality ("your daughter is dead", "your wife is cheating", ...). Doesn't sound very sophisticated, but perhaps they did some profiling and that's the level they thought deemed suitable. I mean, some actually do fall for the prince-thing.

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Re:Government-grade spyware hits Mexican advocates of soda tax by jcoffland on Monday February 13, 2017 @02:09PM (#13637835)

NSO says it sells only to governments and law enforcement. This includes by definition a lot of unsophisticated actors.

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