NSO BLOCKS SOME GOVTS FROM USING SPY SOFTWARE
NEW DELHI: The NSO group, the Israeli company that has recently come into the spotlight over the misuse of its spyware, has temporarily blocked several governments across the world from using the technology, according to a report by National Public Radio (NPR) on Thursday.
The suspensions came after a global investigation published last week by 17 media organisations said that the Pegasus spyware had been used in attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists.
“There is an investigation into some clients. Some of those clients have been temporarily suspended,” a source told the NPR on condition of anonymity.
NEW DELHI: The NSO group, the Israeli company that has recently come into the spotlight over the misuse of its spyware, has temporarily blocked several governments across the world from using the technology, according to a report by National Public Radio (NPR) on Thursday.
The suspensions came after a global investigation published last week by 17 media organisations said that the Pegasus spyware had been used in attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists. NSO rejected the reports, saying it was “full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories”. Pegasus is intended for use only by government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to fight terrorism and crime, the company said.
“There is an investigation into some clients. Some of those clients have been temporarily suspended,” a source told the NPR on condition of anonymity since the company’s new policy forbids any responses to media queries.
The source did not name which governments or how many in total have been suspended from using the spyware, the NPR reported. Israeli defence regulations prohibit the company from identifying its clients.
In the past the NSO has said it does not know the specific identities of people against whom clients use Pegasus, but that if it receives complaints it can acquire the target lists and unilaterally shut down the software for any clients found to have abused it.
Separately, the phone of France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire is currently being investigated to determine whether it has been infected by Pegasus spyware.
“We are in an investigation phase, and that includes my own device,” Le Maire told France Inter radio on Friday.
He refused to elaborate on the investigation.