Technology the Trump Administration Could Use to Hack Your Phone
Other Western democracies have been roiled by the use of spyware to
target political opponents, activists, journalists, and other
vulnerable groups. Could it happen here?
In September, the Department of Homeland Security (D.H.S.) signed a two-million-dollar contract with Paragon, an Israeli firm whose
spyware product Graphite focusses on breaching encrypted-messaging
applications such as Telegram and Signal. Wired first reported that
the technology was acquired by Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE)--an agency within D.H.S. that will soon be involved in executing
the Trump Administration's promises of mass deportations and
crackdowns on border crossings. A source at Paragon told me that the
deal followed a vetting process, during which the company was able to demonstrate that it had robust tools to prevent other countries that
purchase its spyware from hacking Americans--but that wouldn't limit
the U.S. government's ability to target its own citizens. The
technology is part of a booming multibillion-dollar market for
intrusive phone-hacking software that is making government
surveillance increasingly cheap and accessible. In recent years, a
number of Western democracies have been roiled by controversies in
which spyware has been used, apparently by defense and intelligence
agencies, to target opposition politicians, journalists, and
apolitical civilians caught up in Orwellian surveillance dragnets. Now
Donald Trump and incoming members of his Administration will decide
whether to curtail or expand the U.S. government's use of this kind of technology. Privacy advocates have been in a state of high alarm about
the colliding political and technological trend lines. "It's just so evident--the impending disaster," Emily Tucker, the executive director
at the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law, told me.
"You may believe yourself not to be in one of the vulnerable
categories, but you won't know if you've ended up on a list for some
reason or your loved ones have. Every single person should be
worried."
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-technology-the-trump-administration-could-use-to-hack-your-phone
his Administration will decide whether to curtail or expand
the U.S. government's use of this kind of technology.
Of course he will....a control freaks must have tech.
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