John Scott-Railton MEMBER_OF Citizen Lab
John Scott-Railton works for Citizen Lab and conducts investigative research there.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 99 Details
“John works for Citizen Lab and does investigative work”
Qualified triples from the transcripts. Origin, speaker, and evidence stay attached. These are not independently verified facts.
John Scott-Railton MEMBER_OF Citizen Lab
John Scott-Railton works for Citizen Lab and conducts investigative research there.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 99 Details
“John works for Citizen Lab and does investigative work”
Michel Lambert SAME_AS Aharon Almog-Assoulin
Michel Lambert was identified as Aharon Almog-Assoulin, a former Israeli intelligence officer or official; the identification was reported by The New York Times after Uvda recognized his photo.
Attributed Confidence 96% · John Scott-Railton EP 99 Details
“The New York Times had the story that he was a former Israeli intelligence officer or official named Aharon Almog-Assoulin.”
Black Cube operation against Citizen Lab TARGETS Citizen Lab
The operation sought information about Citizen Lab and potentially material that could discredit the lab's work.
Explicit Confidence 99% · John Scott-Railton EP 99 Details
“the main objective was learning about Citizen Lab’s work and then potentially finding something that could be used against the lab”
Black Cube USES phone geolocation tracking via reply messages
Black Cube used spam-like text messages whose yes-or-no replies returned the recipient's geolocation; Igor says this was not continuous tracking.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Igor EP 99 Details
“He replies yes or no, the geolocation gets received with the reply.”
Black Cube USES compartmentalization
Igor describes Black Cube as operating on a compartmentalized basis and withholding names and sources from field personnel.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Igor EP 99 Details
“Black Cube is a private intelligence company, so they operate in a compartmentalized kind of basis.”
John Scott-Railton USES covert recording
John created and used a covert-camera necktie to record the meeting with the suspected operative, while also recording audio.
Explicit Confidence 99% · John Scott-Railton EP 99 Details
“create a reasonable approximation of a covert camera video necktie”
“he did manage to still record the audio”
zero-click exploit AFFECTS WhatsApp
Citizen Lab found a zero-click exploit targeting WhatsApp users, after which WhatsApp patched the application.
Explicit Confidence 98% · John Scott-Railton EP 100 Details
“he was targeted with what we now know to have been a zero-click exploit against WhatsApp users”
zero-day exploit chain AFFECTS WebKit
The first stage of the exploit chain targeted a bug in WebKit.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 100 Details
“That JavaScript program tries to exploit a bug in WebKit”
zero-day exploit chain AFFECTS iPhone
The exploit chain was used against fully patched iPhones and included kernel exploits that enabled jailbreaking.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Jack Rhysider EP 100 Details
“this worked with iPhones which were fully patched”
Pegasus ASSOCIATED_WITH Jamal Khashoggi
The episode presents a theory that Saudi operators may have used Pegasus to spy on Khashoggi, but says his phone was not recovered and the claim is not certain.
Uncertain Confidence 82% · Jack Rhysider EP 100 Details
“the theory is that the Saudi government used Pegasus to spy on Khashoggi”
According to a Reuters article by Joseph Menn, the FBI was trying to determine whether NSO obtained exploits from Americans; Jack also speculates that the FBI may be investigating NSO more broadly.
Attributed Confidence 88% · Jack Rhysider EP 100 Details
“Joseph Menn at Reuters wrote an article saying that the FBI was trying to determine if the NSO Group got any of its exploits from Americans”
Magic Lantern ASSOCIATED_WITH lawful intercept
Jack says Magic Lantern would be classified as a lawful intercept mechanism if the FBI had legal permission to use it.
Uncertain Confidence 91% · Jack Rhysider EP 100 Details
“this would classify Magic Lantern to be a lawful intercept mechanism”
Pegasus DEVELOPED_BY NSO Group
The episode presents Pegasus as the flagship spyware made and sold by NSO Group.
Explicit Confidence 99% · Jack Rhysider EP 100 Details
“It’s the flag ship software that NSO sells”
Magic Lantern DEVELOPED_BY Jack Rhysider
Jack discusses Magic Lantern and its reported use by the FBI.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 100 Details
“There’s this malware called Magic Lantern and I find it fascinating.”
Pegasus DISCOVERED_BY Citizen Lab
Citizen Lab discovered and obtained a copy of Pegasus while investigating links sent to Ahmed Mansoor.
Explicit Confidence 96% · John Scott-Railton EP 100 Details
“we were actually able to grab the payload, the actual Pegasus deployment”
Pegasus DISCOVERED_BY Lookout Security
Lookout Security worked with Citizen Lab to investigate and dissect the newly discovered Pegasus malware.
Explicit Confidence 93% · Jack Rhysider EP 100 Details
“they teamed up with Lookout Security to help investigate this”
WhatsApp v. NSO Group litigation INVOLVES Pegasus
The WhatsApp litigation concerns the exploitation of users with Pegasus spyware.
Explicit Confidence 96% · Peter Dobbie EP 100 Details
“NSO has faced a number of lawsuits, one of them from WhatsApp”
“victims of Pegasus spyware”
WhatsApp v. NSO Group litigation INVOLVES NSO Group
WhatsApp sued NSO over exploitation of WhatsApp users; the episode describes the litigation as ongoing at the time of recording.
Explicit Confidence 99% · John Scott-Railton EP 100 Details
“Since the time of that initial discovery, WhatsApp has sued NSO”
John Scott-Railton MEMBER_OF Citizen Lab
John identifies himself as a senior researcher at Citizen Lab.
Explicit Confidence 99% · John Scott-Railton EP 100 Details
“I’m a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab”
Shalev Hulio MEMBER_OF NSO Group
Shalev Hulio is identified as one of the founders of NSO and as the company’s S.
Explicit Confidence 98% · Jack Rhysider EP 100 Details
“That’s Shalev Hulio, the S in NSO”
Omri is identified as one of the founders of NSO and as the O in its name.
Explicit Confidence 96% · Jack Rhysider EP 100 Details
“I reached out to NSO first with Omri who’s the O part of NSO”
Citizen Lab PART_OF University of Toronto’s Munk School
John describes Citizen Lab in connection with the University of Toronto’s Munk School.
Derived Confidence 88% · John Scott-Railton EP 100 Details
“at the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School”
John Scott-Railton TARGETS Black Cube
John and Jack state that Black Cube spies targeted John Scott-Railton in connection with Citizen Lab’s work on NSO.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Jack Rhysider EP 100 Details
“Black Cube spying on John Scott-Railton and Citizen Lab”
FinFisher TARGETS Ahmed Mansoor
John says Ahmed Mansoor was targeted in 2011 by an email containing FinFisher.
Explicit Confidence 98% · John Scott-Railton EP 100 Details
“in 2011 Mansoor was targeted by an e-mail with a Trojan that was FinFisher”
Pegasus could read WhatsApp messages from an infected phone.
Explicit Confidence 97% · Jack Rhysider EP 100 Details
“read WhatsApp messages or listen to calls or track location”