Techmeme
July 20, 2021, 2:00 AM

Top News

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Amnesty International researchers published a toolkit to help anyone scan their iPhone and Android devices for evidence of compromise by NSO's Pegasus spyware  —  Over the weekend, an international consortium of news outlets reported that several authoritarian governments — including Mexico …
Washington Post:
Of the 67 phones Amnesty's Security Lab probed, 34 were iPhones, of which 23 showed signs of a successful Pegasus infection and the others showed attempts  —  The text delivered last month to the iPhone 11 of Claude Mangin, the French wife of a political activist jailed in Morocco, made no sound.
The Guardian:
Snowden calls for spyware trade ban amid NSO news, saying the industry should not exist and “they don't make vaccines—the only thing they sell is the virus”  —  NSA whistleblower warns of world in which no phone is safe from state-sponsored hackers if no action taken
Washington Post:
Nina Lakhani / The Guardian:
Dana Priest / Washington Post:
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
DOJ unseals charges against four Chinese nationals, believed to be part of China-backed APT 40 hacking group; charging docs focus on activity from 2011 to 2018  —  The US Department of Justice has indicted four Chinese nationals today for hacking companies, government agencies …
Ina Fried / Axios:
US, EU, UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, and NATO blame China for cyberattacks, including the massive attack on Microsoft's Exchange Servers in March  —  The U.S., NATO and other allies are collectively calling out China for malicious cyberattacks, including a March attack that exploited a flaw in Microsoft's Exchange Server.
Sheera Frenkel / New York Times:
Sources: a group of Facebook data scientists asked for resources to measure COVID misinfo on Facebook at the start of the pandemic, but execs denied the request  —  The company doesn't know some specifics about how falsehoods about Covid-19 and vaccines for the virus spread on its social network.
Andrew Restuccia / Wall Street Journal:
Biden backtracks on his Facebook criticism, says he meant top users spreading vaccine misinfo were “killing people”, and urges Facebook to reduce misinformation  —  President says company isn't to blame for deaths, but adds it needs to do more to stop social-media users from spreading falsities
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Dish Network signs a deal to pay AT&T at least $5B over the next 10 years to use AT&T's 4G and 5G networks for its MVNOs  —  Dish Network has a new network operator partner for its MVNO brands: AT&T. The companies have signed a network services agreement (NSA) that will see Dish pay …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
IBM reports Q2 revenue of $18.75B, up 3% YoY, compared to estimates of $18.29B; revenue of Cloud & Cognitive Software unit, which includes Red Hat, is up 6% YoY  —  - IBM surpassed expectations on the top and bottom lines.  — The company spent $1.75 billion on acquisitions in the quarter.

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Gian M. Volpicelli / Wired UK:
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