Earlier today we saw this (AP via the Seattle Times): "Apple suing Israeli hacker-for-hire company NSO Group".
And some more, from MIT's Technology Review, November 23:
NSO was about to sell hacking tools to France. Now it’s in crisis.French officials were close to buying controversial surveillance tool Pegasus from NSO earlier this year. Now the US has sanctioned the Israeli company, and insiders say it’s on the ropes.
The story has been updated to include the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ denial that it was in the process of purchasing NSO Group tools.
In July, accusations emerged that spyware from NSO Group had targeted French president Emmanuel Macron, causing a major controversy. The company denied the claims—part of a string of allegations about use of the Israeli hacking group’s Pegasus software. Israel’s military officials, meanwhile, rushed to end a diplomatic crisis by meeting with their French counterparts and promising to investigate the charges.
At the exact same time, MIT Technology Review has learned, French government officials were in the final stages of contract negotiations to purchase Pegasus hacking tools from NSO. The French were on the verge of buying the tool—in the type of deal that is typically worth millions of dollars—despite years of allegations that it was regularly being used to surveil and harass dissidents, journalists, and human rights activists worldwide.
But sources familiar with the deal say that the process fell apart after the accusations that French politicians potentially were among those targeted, and negotiations were broken off just a few days before the sale was set to take place. After publication, France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied it was in the process of purchasing NSO Group tools.
Another important relationship fell apart earlier this month, when the United States sanctioned NSO Group by adding it to its entity list, thereby imposing rigorous rules and restrictions on Americans buying from or selling to the Israeli company.
The US made the move because it said NSO was building and selling “spyware to foreign governments” that used it for malicious purposes. The action, the Commerce Department declared in its announcement, “is a part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to put human rights at the center of US foreign policy, including by working to stem the proliferation of digital tools used for repression.”
While Israel has since managed to calm the situation with France, the attempts to mend relations with the US have been far more difficult.
Despite repeated and lengthy attempts to communicate with Washington, the company has failed to make meaningful contact with US officials, according to people familiar with the effort. NSO is attempting to get the sanctions reversed, a process that involves filing a written appeal to the Commerce Department.
The company’s executives sent a letter to Israeli government officials pleading for help to change Washington’s decision, but they were told that the US isn’t talking about this with them, either. In Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, Israeli officials feel stuck guessing why they were left in the dark about the decision to sanction NSO until the last second. Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to a request for comment, while the US Commerce Department explained the appeals process and timeline but declined to comment on the specifics of NSO’s case.
Employees at the company, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, say the sanctions and scandals have left NSO facing an existential crisis. NSO had not yet responded to a request for comment by the time this story published....
....MUCH MORE
