US immigration agents will have access to one of the world’s most sophisticated hacking tools after a decision by the Trump administration to move ahead with a contract with Paragon Solutions, a company founded in Israel which makes spyware that can be used to hack into any mobile phone – including encrypted applications.
The Department of Homeland Security first entered into a contract with Paragon, now owned by a US firm, in late 2024, under the Biden administration. But the $2m contract was put on hold pending a compliance review to make sure it adhered to an executive order that restricts the US government’s use of spyware, Wired reported at the time.
That pause has now been lifted, according to public procurement documents, which list US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) as the contracting agency.
Found an article that says this software is usually in-memory only and restarting regularly will purge it (obviously you could get reinfected): https://www.zdnet.com/article/is-meta-secretly-scanning-your-phones-camera-roll-check-this-setting-to-find-out/
After I didn’t see the mentioned content I looked around Zdnet, and I think you might have meant to link this article instead:
Bad click, it happens. Good article, though. Thanks!
So weird. I don’t even remember viewing that article. Maybe it was a link just above my address bar.
Every early morning. Mine is right before my alarm goes off, so the notification sounds just meld.
Also, no one should be using biometric data to log into thier phones. 6 digit pin isn’t very obtrusive once you get used to it
worthless when there’s cameras in every corner that record as you unlock your phone all 40 times through the day
Fuck you too, buddy. You’re being recorded as you input your absurdly long password into your phone. They probably got it on camera. haha
my password? which one? I very rarely type any passwords in public… but fuck me for having forethought!
This motherfucker runs to the bathroom to unlock his phone
6 digit pin will be broken in less than 40 minutes by a graybox. A 6-digit pin is way more vulnerable than someone who uses a 30-digit password + biometrics
edit: sorry it’s instantly in 2025 https://www.hivesystems.com/blog/are-your-passwords-in-the-green
That’s for breaking a bcrypt hash, and I don’t believe there’s any way to extract the pin hash from a phone since it happens inside a secure hardware layer (like a TPM). If it is possible, the attacker would most likely have to physically destroy your phone to get at it. To bruteforce a 4 digit pin with retry lockout timers, it takes 16 hours to try all combinations, according to a tool I found that auto-enters pins via usb keyboard emulation.
The linked article doesn’t mention whether it can bypass the max attempt lockout or not. I’m not saying you’re wrong, but the article you linked does nothing to support your claim.
That said, an alphanumeric password is certainly more secure than a PIN, no doubt.
Sure bro, put a 30 character password into your phone every time you want to find the nearest fucking coffee shop.
edit: I guess I should explain. I’m into privacy not necessarily absolute security. If a cop wants in my phone I forgot my PIN. There’s no biometric to get into it so he’s going to have to get a warrant if he wants anything to actually stick. With face ID he just holds it up to my face. With fingerprint he can force my finger onto the sensor. In the USA, don’t know about Europe.
I just needed this info out there, I don’t really care what you do - I just need to make sure Lemmy stays safe and you’re spouting leaky insecurity disguised as best practices.
Best of luck
I think I just leaked a little right now. I don’t believe you have a 30 character unlock on your phone. That doesn’t make sense on a device someone uses multiple times a day in one hand at like a bus stop or something.
And I’m no security professional, just some dumbass out in the street.
I use a 15 character pw with a mix of upper and lower case, numbers, and symbols, which according to that link is pretty damn good.
On a phone. On the lock screen. Every time.
Nah, I don’t buy it.
Of course I do. FaceID allows me to input it exactly once a week, sometimes less.
What don’t you understand?
Wait, so you’re using faceid but you think you’re secure?
Are you stupid?
If you’re in the USA and a cop gets your phone they’re going to pop it onto a graybox and will be digging through your shit up to their elbows. I wish I were wrong
That’s fine. I didn’t help them.
Hope your high horse can get a job and feed your family when you lose your government career over an edgy Modern Warfare 3 chat lobby
With biometrics I only enter it once a week, at the very most. It’s insane to me that people want their phones to be less secure, but best of luck to you and your super secure TSA lock on your phone lol
'the fuck kind of biometric unlock is that? I’m actually curious what you’re using.
FaceID on an iPhone
So the cop can just use that FaceID to unlock your phone?
Fuck Israel. They have been a force for evil from day 1.
It has also said it has a no tolerance policy and will cut off government clients who use the spyware to target members of civil society, such as journalists
Citizen Labs confirmed joirnalists have been targeted
Nice of The Guardian to repeat their obvious lie without immediately calling it out. This is just NSO Group 2.0. They’re moving all the engineers over because even the US was willing to sanction NSO Group after everything they did
It’s as if we lived in a very silent storm. (Thinking of that moment with Putin and Xi caught discussing how today one can live till 150 ; I don’t think Trump will last that much, but someone else from their crowd - easily.)
Well well well. Isn’t it the real reason the west supports the genocide. By sending money there you can do “research” without having to worry about pesky stuff like privacy or human rights
the west supports the genocide
You mean America. The rest of us are against this and have made policy moves against Israel.
Oh? Remind me again how many countries have even an arms embargo against Israel? Or they have any sort of penalties against them outside of completely symbolic actions done well past the time they should have been? How many of those countries is it a crime to criticize Israel in? The UK and Germany at a minimum.
Germany and the UK are the latest two that have issued arms embargos against Israel, however considering less than 0.1% of Israel’s arms come from outside America, they have little power or influence there.
How many of those countries is it a crime to criticize Israel in? The UK and Germany at a minimum.
Zero. It is not a crime to criticize Israel in either the UK or Germany. The BBC just published an article accusing them of genocide. You are spreading misinformation.
Who benefits from this misinformation?
It is in effect against the law to criticize Israel in Germany and now the uk. It is against the law to protest in the UK in effect.
Neither of these things are true. You are spreading misinformation.
The US deserves the vast majority of the blame here (along with Israel of course). The truth is though, for many in Germany and the UK including those at the highest levels of power they are if anything jealous to be missing out on the colonialism and genocide. Again, the US is absolutely the primary problem but… really? You are going to act like the US isn’t just following in the footsteps of the brutal colonial empires of England and Germany?
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday defended his characterization of Israel’s airstrikes on Iran as “dirty work,” saying his remarks received widespread support despite some criticism.
Speaking to reporters after meeting with state premiers in Berlin, Merz stood firmly behind his earlier comments that Israel was doing necessary “dirty work” for Western nations through its military actions against Iran’s nuclear program.
The truth is though, for many in Germany and the UK including those at the highest levels of power they are if anything jealous to be missing out on the colonialism and genocide.
Sounds like you’re jealous of Europe being the best place on earth for worker’s rights.
I mean, yes in so far as you can generalize, of course I am jealous of that!? You think I like being stuck at the bottom of a cruel hole lined with gold and bullet casings?
Maybe if you stopped blaming all your problems on the West you’d be able to dig out of that hole.
France, Britain, Germany. All as bad as the US.
The responsibility of america is undeniable ofc they’re the main offender. But Germany still use israeli tech.
https://www.dw.com/en/german-police-secretly-bought-nso-pegasus-spyware/a-59113197
I think it’s at least part of the reason why they’re so stubbornly supporting israel, at least as much as the official wahwah about the genocide they did 80 years ago.
Germany still use israeli tech.
That article is from 2021. This is a few weeks ago:
https://www.dw.com/en/germany-suspends-arms-exports-to-israel-for-use-in-gaza/a-73569858
This is disguisting. Personally I wish for a second versaille agrement for germany after this.
But I’m biased. We shouldn’t let germany be a country imo. When I was there I learned that some actually smart germans calls for the Totale Rückverdummung (“total restupidification”) and balkanization of Germany.
I do love germans though, great people.
Deleted by author
I mean countries, their national governments. America is the only country that officially supports Israel. Every other country in the West has publicly criticized them, sanctioned them, banned arms sales to them. Including Germany and UK.
Then why are those countries also arresting pro-Palestinian protesters?
They aren’t. Name one country where you think it is illegal to protest in support of Palestine, and I will debunk the misinformation for you.
There’s news reports all over the fucking place, here, mainstream media, social media. Wtf are you talking about? They’re all lies?
Lip service, really.
No, policy moves. Sanctions. Freezing bank accounts. Banning arms sales. Don’t buy into the anti-West propaganda.
Seriously dude, you think people are stupid? The last two years didn’t exist?
I mean I’ve just learned from another poster that “their contributions represent less than 0.1% of Israel’s total arms imports” in the first place, so it’s not like there was much power or influence we had over Israel.
They’re backed by the most powerful nation on earth. That’s all they need, they don’t need the rest of the West.
Do you know about the dutch tradition of carving little iced alcohol (grain booze, the one they call genever or bols) into little balls and to suck on them? Maybe you can try that? Sucking my bols?
Nitie nite süßer Panda xoxo
The only source I found about “Freezing bank account” is The Conversation (case in point about the lip service lmao)
https://theconversation.com/eu-sanctions-against-israel-heres-whats-on-the-table-260982
An arms embargo against Israel also appears unlikely, largely because Germany and Italy are, along with the US, Israel’s main suppliers of arms. Some European countries, including France, Spain and the UK, have either stopped the supply of weapons or suspended export licenses, but their contributions represent less than 0.1% of Israel’s total arms imports.
If saying european governements are complicit with a genocide is AnTiWesT ProPagAnDa, then yes. Fuck the west.
Here’s a random picture to close our interactions.
Good day
their contributions represent less than 0.1% of Israel’s total arms imports.
You quoted it, you posted it, I assume you read it?
I said good day
Gaza is the future for America.
i wish. its the future of their colonies.
Exactly. It’s the canary in the coalmine.
I sure hope nobody’s carpet bombed.
Like never again
I mean, USA would probably have a better society were it carpet-bombed and then rebuilt. Or at least were it to experience a big war on its territory. Like, despite their flaws, many of the EU countries, and many others. Many of your problems are from misunderstanding dignity and strength ; war teaches you to respect the weak and to understand that it’s a sacrifice to be strong. Unfortunately that means a lot of murder, and to do a lot of murder, you pay with ever more murder. So I don’t want for that to happen, but at the same time I’m not sure if there’s even any other way to teach these things.
This is how I see it as a US citizen. Our violence is boomeranging hard which ok I don’t wish it on others but yes absolutely this is the future of the US.
You know, for those of us who are not Americans, such statements sound completely devoid of empathy, as if something could only worry you if it “were the future for America”. And it really seems a pattern. It’s as if any crime were only real for you all there if it were somehow directed against America. I’m not even talking about being tone deaf, it’s just really strange how Americans think.
such statements sound completely devoid of empathy
Only enough empathy for 330M people?
You sound like a real grade-A asshole.
It’s as if any crime were only real for you all there if it were somehow directed against America.
Less directed at than directed by. America is the premier purveyor of war crimes, ever since the Europeans fell off their game.
The violence of the empire once more turning inward is notable in the US today in the same way it was notable in France at the start of their Long Nineteenth Century or Japan during the Meiji Restoration or Russia in the October Revolution.
What starts here infests the rest of the world.
that’s what i’m saying. they’ve already been tightening our restraints for decades now, and it’s only really a problem now that they need to pull the proverbial copper from the walls and do it to themselves.
i think this starts to make sense when you consider just how much nationalist propaganda they seem to be exposed to constantly, and its scary how ignorant some of them are of what happens outside their borders. and i mean ignorant, frankly some of them just seem hellbent on closing their ears and not listening to any of it. some just say heinous shit outright.
“you all” Nice.
Don’t take it literally.
If only Kojima was still making metal gear games
As if anybody in the Silicon Valley worried about privacy and human rights.
Can I get a pirated copy so I can finally root my motorola moto z3 running android 9 then ?
Anyone got the torrent ?Thank god! Israel is our greatest ally.
When politicians say “israel is our greatest ally” they aren’t lying.
Their definition of “our” just doesn’t include us
Fascists gonna fasc. They will continue to fasc until somebody decides they’ve had enough.
Very surprising from the country of freedom
Fun fact: Americans benefited from Nazi technology after World War II as well.
I read somewhere about AL being so racists because that’s where all the Nazi scientists went who started working on the space program.
No idea if it’s true. Pretty sure the south was balls deep in slavery before that, but it does make some sense.
Can’t find shit about how well this works on Graphene because of their stupid names.
I don’t know about this attack, but Cellebrite’s support table gets leaked pretty regularly: https://discuss.privacyguides.net/t/updated-cellebrite-google-pixel-matrix-leak-february-2025/25911
Soo basically to stay ahead of this you gotta have the newest pixel running the latest build always… that sounds expensive.
You can buy a Pixel 7a which has two and a half years of software support remaining on Ebay for under $200.
Doesn’t have to be the newest device if I understand the chart right. It does need to be relatively up-to-date (IMO it’s kind of silly to use GrapheneOS but not update it).
It looks like it says “yes if you haven’t updated grapheneOS since 2022” specifically, meaning they haven’t updated in 3y. No matter what phone is 3y out if date, I wouldn’t trust it either lol. It’s a cat and mouse game, the cat’ll for sure catch up within 3y, gotta stay ahead of them.
Depends on your threat model.
I mean imo everyone’s threat model should be at least their local police if not the national authorities. Local cops have cellebrite. Only the latest pixel is secure before first unlock on this chart.
I’m finna go dumbphone in a Faraday bag.
Yeah to hell when they’re belong freaking hypocrites always trying to silence the truth about killing in Gaza
Only good Ice agent is a dead one.
They don’t need to die. They can go back to guarding parking lots.
That’s a bit like blaming the gun instead of the shooter, no?
Yeah, don’t blame the brownshirts kicking teeth in, blame the government that hires them /s
They volunteered for this, they can sleep in the pit for it in the end.
Sure, I get the “just following orders” criticism, my point is that killing ICE agents wouldn’t solve anything. I imagine many of them joined long before the crackdown started and are there to arrest actually bad people (i.e. cartel members) and don’t like the direction the current admin is going. There are also plenty of people who support this nonsense too.
Regardless, attacking the people following orders doesn’t change the orders, we should be attacking the top.
I understand your point, but these people know what they’re signing up for and why they’re putting in the uniform every day. We shouldn’t pretend these people are in anyway innocent or not culpable for their crimes. Regardless of orders, these are people who are willingly causing pain, suffering and death to innocents.
Fuck them. Fuck their bosses. None of them get any credit or sympathy. I don’t care if they started when ice was formed, they know what their orders are and are still there, what they signed up for is entirely immaterial. Also, ice was shit from the start, so even less sympathy from me.
Regardless, attacking the people following orders doesn’t change the orders, we should be attacking the top.
Making people hesitant to throw in with the brownshirts for fear of social reprisal is a perfectly valid strategy for attacking the top. Make less people want to participate in their crimes makes it harder for them to do crimes.
Make less people want to participate in their crimes makes it harder for them to do crimes.
No, it just means the reasonable people will leave and it’ll attract the types who actually agree with it. There will always be more people to take those jobs.
The real solution is changing the leadership and laws.
That’s a much smaller pool of people than those who may willingly go along with it but object otherwise.
Stop giving thugs a pass for being thugs, just because their bosses are shit. You can attack both, this isn’t some kind of mutually exclusive action.
My point is that killing ICE agents won’t make things better and will probably make things worse.
The fuck? How?
“Just following orders” isn’t a valid excuse. We know this from history.
I never said it was.
My point is that killing the soldier doesn’t change the orders, they’ll just find another soldier. If one soldier isn’t willing to follow orders, they’ll find another that is.
You were kind of making the same defense though…
The implication was that we shouldn’t blame the soldiers because they weren’t the ones who made the decision.
That’s not how this works.
No, the implication is that targeting ICE agents doesn’t solve the problem. I’m not saying that ICE agents should be immune from the law, I’m saying that the root of the problem is the orders. If some ICE agents refuse to follow orders, they’ll be replaced by those who will follow them, just like a murder will replace a gun if it doesn’t function properly.
The focus should be on the source of the problems, which is a mix of the law and the leadership. We should certainly hold ICE agents accountable for any laws they break, but targeting them w/ violence shouldn’t be the focus.
If they fear actual consequences, then less people will be willing to join.
They are literal extrajudicial fascist brownshirts that want my friends and neighbors dead. These are actual people under those masks, and they need to understand that their actions have consequences. I’m not saying people should go out and kill them, but I’m saying that they need to fear that.
You can focus on both my dude.
No, recruitment will just focus on hiring people that are okay with those circumstances, which means people with less empathy and quicker to use force. I’m not implying we should ignore illegal actions by ICE agents (we should absolutely hold them legally accountable), I’m just saying that it’s not likely to solve the problem w/o changes to the law and/or the leadership, especially given how the courts tend to give law enforcement officers a pass.
As people target ICE agents more and more w/ violence, the more violence they’ll use in response. Violence begets violence, and that’s not going to solve the problem.
What we need are lawsuits challenging the legality of their actions, and ideally criminal charges against the leadership making illegal orders. We need to pressure our representatives to change the law. We need to protest peacefully and get positive media coverage so our voices cannot be ignored. Violence isn’t going to solve it.
this just brings them on par with local LEOs. these cabinets have charging ports and run brute force attacks on pins and passcodes, at least the simplest and cheapest options do.
https://docs.mvt.re/en/latest/
Stay safe, stay ungovernable.
No releases since January? Malware moves fast
June 12th
https://pypi.org/project/mvt/Interesting and concerning that’s not listed on their github
