Hacker News

EU and UK spent millions on Israeli phone cracking tech despite risks(statewatch.org)

30 points by jruohonen 21 hours ago | 11 comments

i wonder if the same millions invested in researchers in UK and EU would simply yield the same results but safer.

It’s even funnier: I am not allowed to do projects that allow me to gain the skills I would need to build this tech in Germany. Yet my government buys.

[–] remuskaos 16 hours ago

Fellow German here, could you elaborate? Because I was under the impression that I could whatever I wanted with the devices that I own.

[–] niemandhier 13 hours ago

The famed “§ 202c STGB: Vorbereiten des Ausspähens und Abfangens von Daten”, colloquially called the “hacker tools” law.

[–] embedding-shape 18 hours ago

> I am not allowed to do projects that allow me to gain the skills I would need to build this tech in Germany

Can you give examples of what you must be able to do to learn this, but isn't allowed to "do" and that doesn't have any other alternatives to learn?

[–] niemandhier 13 hours ago

The creation of tools to circumvent security measures that protect “data”, is punishable by up to 2 years in prison under vague conditions here.

So anything that would build skills towards being able to crack an iPhone is at least legally ambiguous.

[–] wildzzz 7 hours ago

I'm sure there's a carve out for academic purposes or when produced under a proper government license.

[–] polloxtroy 17 hours ago

It is nearly almost as if there were hidden hands at work in governance of the entire Western world, with invisible gatekeepers in each place which serve those hands. But that's mad talk, isn't it?

[–] tsol 13 hours ago

You'll be treated like this is crazy, even though it's true they are some countries that can break every rule without issue while the rest of us must live by strict standards. Asking for fairness is simply over the line. Upholding this system simply contributes to falling trust in our current system.

But hey maybe that's a good thing in the long run, if our current system isn't just.

[–] trolleski 18 hours ago

They wouldn't be able to collect bribes, that's a downside for the current class of lackeys in power.

[–] MisterMunchkin 17 hours ago

Everyone uses cellebrite because they have a moat that AI companies could only dream of.

You could read through their entire leaked source and copy their product, it means jack shit. Their product is their pipeline of 0-days which lets them get into the latest products. Nobody else has it, so nobody else matters.

Their actual product itself is pretty shit, but it doesn’t matter because nobody else has their level of expertise and the level of espionage required to hack all of these devices.