An Israeli company known as the NSO Group is in the business of selling exploits to governments in order to spy on people online. The company collects bugs in operating systems, be it desktop or mobile, and then offers them to governments in order to put malware on people they wish to surveil. The NSO Group assures that they don't sell to repressive regimes, but Leo says that some of their clientele is pretty sketch. And if you're spying on your citizens, how legitimate are you, really?
The result is that a market has emerged that encourages hacking with a financial benefit. As such, Apple is suing the NSO Group, claiming it's a violation of their terms of service. Facebook has also sued the group and won several times on appeal, and the US has issued sanctions against the company as the US State Department mobile devices have been hacked by NSO Group software.
Does it affect you or me? Leo says no. Nobody is spending big bucks to hack the average user's phone. But it represents a security and privacy issue all around the world and could have an indirect effect on our everyday technological lives.
