Grey Heron is a new cyber-arms dealer offering to sell hacking tools to governments; it is fronted by Eric Rabe, who previously represented the disgraced, hacked Italian malware company Hacking Team, notorious for selling spy tools to governments that used them to target dissidents who were tortured and murdered after they were outed.
Grey Heron's marketing materials, distributed at the no-press-allowed UK Security & Policing event, promises the ability to hack into messages sent over Signal and Telegram, two widely used secure messaging platforms.
Stapled to the marketing materials was a card for Eric Rabe, who is identified as "marketing and communication" for the company.
In the brochure, Grey Heron promises to solve the same sort of problem that other malware vendors point to: the proliferation of easy-to-use encryption, especially in consumer devices and services. A common way to circumvent end-to-end encryption is to target the end-point itself—the phone, the computer—to siphon messages before they are sent securely.
“Designed in the name of privacy, today’s communications network also provides a near perfect hiding place for the lawless. Criminals and terrorists can do their work without fear. No one can know who or even where they are,” the brochure reads.
Grey Heron’s malware can be deployed in a number of different ways, according to the brochure, including remotely via exploits, or social engineering attacks, likely by tricking a target into downloading the malicious piece of software. The company provides capabilities for Android and iOS devices, as well as OS X and Windows computers.
Government Malware Company 'Grey Heron' Advertises Signal, Telegram Spyware [Joseph Cox/Motherboard]
How can a single, ill-conceived law wreak havoc in so many ways? It prevents you from making remix videos. It blocks computer security research. It keeps those with print disabilities from reading ebooks. It makes it illegal to repair people's cars. It makes it harder to compete with tech companies by designing interoperable products. It's even been used […]
Early versions of the free/open Unix variant BSD came with password files that included hashed passwords for such Unix luminaries as Dennis Ritchie, Stephen R. Bourne, Eric Schmidt, Brian W. Kernighan and Stuart Feldman.
A spokesperson for the Facebook-owned WhatsApp says the company has fixed a security vulnerability that let hackers take control of the messaging app by way of a malicious GIF.
There are a lot of different language apps out there because nobody learns anything the same exact way – especially not something as complex as a new language. For some people, the best way is to dive in and start talking, but that’s easier said than done if you’re not around those natives you aspire […]
There’s movie merch and then there are artifacts – one-of-a-kind items for the true fans only. These 11 items definitely fall into the latter category. We’ve unearthed movie art, props and other fan touchstones from the major nerd franchises of the last 50 years. Gaze upon these Star Wars and Marvel collectibles and don’t worry. […]
No matter what kind of office you work at, there’s probably an Excel expert in it. And no wonder: Businesses are still discovering uses for one of Microsoft’s flagship software suites beyond just bare-bones spreadsheets. Make October the month you become invaluable at work by taking one of these boot camps in Excel and its […]
