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Comment by mjreacher | Hacker News Reader

At what point are western governments going to crack down on companies such as NSO Group?

I don't think the US government will sanction Israel over selling surveillance software to governments that are allied with both the US and Israel.

I am just guessing, but they would probably crack down on specific companies that sell to governments other than their own.

They'd also crack down on companies that sell to other governments and their own. The stakes are getting too high at this point.

On a completely unrelated note, if I were a security researcher, I'd start being extremely mindful about to whom I'm selling zero-days.

>On a completely unrelated note, if I were a security researcher, I'd start being extremely mindful about to whom I'm selling zero-days.

Unless you're dependent on the money, responsible disclosure is probably the most ethical way.

Governments objecting to the success of drive-by 0-day malware should be investing in safer operating systems and programming languages, not trying to outlaw malware.

Why not both? Western governments should (theoretically) be promoting democratic causes not allowing companies to sell to governments that target those that protect democratic values such as activists and journalists.

I guess but that doesn't sound very realistic. The US, if we accept it as an example western government, will tolerate literally anything from Israel, whether government or private, and doesn't really care how badly the Saudis are acting, either.

If this bothers you the best thing individuals can do is invent better computers.

Landing on the moon once didn't sound very realistic either, doesn't mean we should stop trying. At the current moment there is plenty of public pressure on Israel so if it could be directed at something like this that would be a good thing in my mind. This is a political problem and hence should be solved as such.

Scientific unrealistic is different than socially unrealistic. It's not easy to express, but the knowledge I have of human nature, I feel like I understand better, than the knowledge I have of quantum mechanics.

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