2019: WhatsApp sues Israeli firm, accusing it of hacking activists’ phones
……August 5, 2020, from somebody in senior management at the NSO Group. Cherie Blair, former First Lady of the United Kingdom, longtime barrister, noted advocate for women entrepreneurs in Africa, South Asia, and the Middle East, a prominent voice for human rights worldwide, was obliged to pick up the phone. Mrs. Blair had recently signed on as a paid consultant to the Israeli firm NSO to help “incorporate human rights considerations into NSO activities, including interactions with customers and deployment of NSO products.” This was a delicate high-wire act, ethically speaking, because NSO’s signature product, cybersurveillance software called Pegasus, was a remarkable and remarkably unregulated tool—extraordinarily lucrative to the company (NSO grossed around $250 million that year) and dangerously seductive to its clients. Successfully deployed, Pegasus essentially owns a mobile phone; it can break down defenses built into a cell phone, including encryption, and gain something close to free rein on the device, without ever tipping off the owner to its presence. That includes all text and voice communications to and from the phone, location data, photos and videos, notes, browsing history, even turning on the camera and the microphone of the device while the user has no idea it’s happening. Complete remote personal surveillance, at the push of a button.
From ‘Pegasus’ Laurent Richard, Sandrine Rigaud
Pegasus spyware group blacklisted by the US government
American companies are restricted from exporting their goods and services to NSO Group, the company that built Pegasus
https://www.theverge.com/2021/11/3/22761565/nso-group-pegasus-spyware-entity-list-us-government-human-rights
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