Pakistan is a FinFisher customer, leak confirms

http://digitalrightsfoundation.pk/2014/08/pakistan-is-a-finfisher-customer-leak-confirms/

by rhu86 • 12 years ago

114 18 12 years ago

jonaldomo2• 12 years ago

Later it will be revealed the user posting support tickets is actually a CIA operative... Its going to get juicy!

tptacek5• 12 years ago

We could have more political stories on HN, fewer of them knocked off the front page by flagging, as they are today, if it wasn't for the people who took every such story as an opportunity to inject substance-free snark into the site.

Unfortunately, there's no real way to make that happen, so instead, we'll keep doing what we do now: patrolling the front page and killing stories that present too many opportunities for comments like yours.

It's too bad, that comment! Usually, when I read a comment like this, I click through the profile looking for other terrible comments to flag, and usually when I do that, I end up wading through a cistern of crap and malevolence. Not in your case! Anybody who can write comments that start with "I work for an EMR provider and..." has something to contribute to the site. Why muddy those contributions with stuff like this?

forgotpasswd3x• 12 years ago

Instead of killing off the story through flagging, why not just disable commenting on the story?

Seems like banning / downmodding users should work just fine, instead of killing off the whole story.

dqmdm2• 12 years ago

Every story is an opportunity to snark. You should ban the account that made the comment not suppress the controversial information. The information that FinFisher supports/profits/enables oppressive governments should not be hidden just because you don't like the comments.

jonaldomo2• 12 years ago

"Snarky?"... "My account should be banned?" The CIA involvement in Pakistan is widely known and is in the mainstream media. All the spy novels, documentaries and movies in the past decade are around the secret war going on in Pakistan.

throwaway2048• 12 years ago

you are not a mod, you are however presenting yourself as having the authority of one. Please don't do this.

4k• 12 years ago

Its makes me sad to think a government of a nation with so little prosperity somehow has money to spend on this kind of shit.

phaus• 12 years ago

Lots of countries are filthy rich when you consider the fact that a select few get to spend all the money. Ghaddafi, for example, had over $200 billion because he "owned" everything in Libya.

billyhoffman• 12 years ago

Does it honestly surprise anyone that Pakistan is a customer of FinFisher, given the history of their ISI service?

I'm not trying to be snarky, I'm seriously.

State actors were a target customer for FinFisher, and it isn't that hard to figure out probably customers. Saudi Arabia tried to get Moxie to help them spy on its citizens, so I imagine they are a good bet too.

http://www.thoughtcrime.org/blog/saudi-surveillance/

yarou• 12 years ago

Why is it that "professional" spyware seems to be written by a middle school student with access to Visual Basic? I mean if you're going to spy on other people, at least make it look good. These guys need a new design department

abdullahkhalids• 12 years ago

It is surprising that some entity in Pakistan is a customer of FinFisher. There are only two internet cables out of the country, both monitored by the state (which for example allows the continued blocking of YouTube. Therefore, if you have the IP address of someone it is trivial for anyone in the state/government to setup a system to access their unencrypted communication. Indeed the government has tried to buy such systems in the past (I can dig up the RFP if anyone asks).

This points to someone in the intelligence not wanting the other entities in the country to know exactly what they are doing.

Pakistan is a FinFisher customer, leak confirms

Related Stories