WASHINGTON, United States — The
federal government Friday warned the public about the risks of commercial surveillance tools that
have been used to spy on journalists and political dissidents by infecting
their phones with malware.
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The warning, issued by the
National Counterintelligence and Security Center, came after the Biden administration’s actions in November
against the NSO Group, an Israeli surveillance company, and other firms that
have developed malware. When placed on a target’s phone, the software gives
access to nearly all content on the device.
The administration has been trying to make it more difficult
for surveillance companies to operate in order to push them out of the business
of developing commercial spyware that can be misused. American officials are
increasingly concerned that the spyware can be placed on the phones of
diplomats to learn government secrets and that authoritarian governments are
using it to track the work of journalists and political enemies.
The most insidious spyware can be put on a phone without
tricking a user into clicking a malicious link. Such zero-click exploits are
difficult to defend against, but the security center Friday outlined steps that
can mitigate the risk, such as updating devices with the latest operating
systems.
Last year, Apple discovered spyware that gave broad access
to devices used by American diplomats in Uganda. The discovery was made public
not long after the Biden administration took actions against companies that
develop such software, including the NSO Group.
NSO has long insisted that it chooses and vets its clients,
turning away many who would abuse the spyware. But technology firms and
organizations that defend political dissidents have questioned its track
record.
The US found in November that NSO’s software, and its
operations, run contrary to US foreign policy interests. The Commerce
Department placed the firm on its “entities list,” which bans it from receiving
key US technologies.
The Biden administration took action against another Israeli
firm, Candiru, as well as companies based in Russia and Singapore. They were
not accused of hacking into the phones of journalists or dissidents but of
providing the tools to clients.
The warning by the National Counterintelligence and Security
Center — which is charged with alerting the public about espionage threats and
is part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — aims to build
on the Commerce Department’s action and raise awareness of the risks posed by
spyware.
“Although everyday American citizens may not be the primary
targets, we have been acutely concerned that certain governments are using
commercial surveillance software in ways that pose a serious
counterintelligence and security risk to US personnel and systems, and also to
target journalists, human rights activists or others perceived as critics of
regimes around the world,” said Dean Boyd, a spokesperson for the center.
Little can be done to stop the most advanced spyware from
being placed on a phone. But less sophisticated software still relies on
malicious links, meaning that avoiding suspicious emails, attachments and
messages can prevent some attacks.
Some of the center’s recommendations, like disabling options
that allow a phone to track its location or covering cameras, will be more
difficult to follow because they interfere with functions that make smartphones
useful.
But other best practices included in the warning are
relatively easy. The recommendations included regularly restarting mobile
devices to remove or damage some types of malware that live in their memory
rather than in storage.
The center also recommended maintaining physical control of
devices and using trusted virtual private networks.
“While these steps mitigate risks, they don’t eliminate
them,” the center said. “It’s always safest to behave as if the device is
compromised, so be mindful of sensitive content.”
Christoph Hebeisen, director of security intelligence
research at anti-malware firm Lookout, said that while phones have modern
operating software with good security, many people are unaware of the
vulnerabilities.
“People don’t realize that their phones are essentially
computers that are always connected to the internet and can be attacked just
the same,” he said.
Lookout has studied the Pegasus spyware developed by NSO to
learn how it uses exploits to take over all the functions of a phone.
People often use apps that send encrypted data over the
internet, but that information has to be unencrypted on the phone, and spyware
like Pegasus can read it.
“Your device has the key,” Hebeisen said. “And at that
point, it becomes possible to get at the data.”
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