The Government of Israel opposes the decision of the US Department of Commerce to have blacklisted two Tel Aviv companies, dedicated to programming software for digital surveillance, because they are found guilty of having acted in activities contrary to national security or interests of US foreign policy.
The two companies are the NSO Group Technologies , Candiru. In particular, the NSO went under the lens of the American authorities for a now well-known spyware. Let's talk about the Pegasus, a sophisticated software capable of silently self-installing on target phones without receiving the owners' consent. After installation it provides almost complete control of the phone, this includes the ability to browse the contents of the device, such as photos and videos, record conversations, as well as activate the phone's built-in microphone and camera at any time, without any consent or awareness of the user.
According to the US Department of Commerce, software such as Pegasus has enabled a number of governments around the world to "conduct a kind of transnational repression by targeting dissidents, journalists and activists outside their sovereign borders to silence dissent ".
At least fourteen chiefs or former heads of state, including presidents, prime ministers and a king, would have been included in a list of 50.000 phone numbers, compromised by spyware Pegasus. According to a Washington report, Pegasus acted with the French Emmanuel Macron, the South African Cyril Ramaphosa e the Iraqi Barham Salih. Also on the list are the telephone devices of three prime ministers, Saad-Eddine El Othmani of Morocco, Mostafa Madboul of Egypt and Imran Khan of Pakistan and former prime ministers, the French Édouard Philippe, the Belgian Charles Michel, Italian Romano Prodi, the Lebanese Saad Hariri, the Kazakh Bakitzhan Sagintayev, Ugandan Ruhakana Rugunda, the Algerian Noureddine Bedoui and the Yemeni Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr.
According to the New York Times, however, the Israeli government supports and supports the work of NSO Group and Candiru and "sees Pegasus software as a crucial element of its foreign policy". The Israelis, according to the American newspaper, are determined to put pressure on the White House to defend the two companies and convince the American administration that the activities of NSO and Candiru "remain of great importance to the national security of both Israel and the states." United. In exchange for the United States canceling its decision to blacklist the companies, Israel is willing to exercise "much tighter oversight" over these and other similar companies through the software license control system.
La NSO Group Technologies months ago at the WP claimed to monitor its customers' use of its software and to have the power to block any misuse of Pegasus. The company would continue to investigate all credible allegations of abuse and take appropriate action, including shutting down the system for the customer who misused it. "