Cyber-arms dealers offer to sell surveillance weapons to undercover Al Jazeera reporters posing as reps of South Sudan and Iran

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Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/04/11/we-have-no-problem-with-iran.html

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Hey, their money is just as green as ours.

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Any deal that we may have discussed with him would have to be dependent on obtaining the full legal authorisation from the authorities.

… now that we’re caught, that is.

(pssst, meet me outside in five minutes)

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So that’s what real journalism looks like!

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Roger That!

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The really alarming part of the story is the implication that nation-state spyware is now cheap enough that South Sudan is a plausible customer.

Nerd mercs being ethically flexible isn’t news; but if South Sudan can afford this stuff, you know the barriers to entry are getting a trifle low.

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I guess it’s a totally different issue if you’re a business as opposed to Donald Trump whose first act in office was to reduce the sanctions against Russia and allow their FSB to buy our spy equipment?

U.S. eases restrictions on cyber-security sales to Russian spy agency

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Not if the provider has access to the data collected to sell on to NSA other interested parties.

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Trump did not let the FSB buy spy equipment.

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Feb 2, 2017: Donald Trump’s government has loosened sanctions imposed by Barack Obama on Russia’s Federal Security Service, that would make it easier for US companies to do business with the intelligence agency.

Russia’s Tass News Agency said: “US authorities have weakened the sanctions regime against the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB).”

It gave the Treasury the authority to determining “that circumstances no longer warrant the blocking of the property and interests in property of a person”.

The FSB was the only Russian intelligence entity named in the amendment announced Thursday.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer denied that the amendment was an easement of sanctions against Russia, adding that it was a “fairly common practise” by the Treasury Department.

**Like anyone believes ANYTHING Spicer says.

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