U.S. News: Israeli Firm Blacklisted in Hacking Allegation

"The Biden administration placed Israeli cybersecurity company NSO Group on an export prohibition list that will restrict the firm from obtaining some types of technology from the U.S.

NSO Group was placed on an "entity list" Wednesday by the Commerce Department, which said the firm had been acting "contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States."

The department also placed three other similar vendors -- based in Israel, Russia and Singapore -- on the entity list. The move came after an interagency panel of the departments of Defense, State, Energy, Treasury and Commerce determined that the conduct of the companies warranted inclusion on the list.

The designation will block exports from the U.S. to NSO Group of both hardware and software without a Commerce Department license, and it could make it more difficult for the company to seek contracts with international customers. The department said it would review any future license applications with a "presumption of denial" but retains discretion to grant them in some circumstances.

 

The Israeli government also tightly controls the export of NSO Group's software as defense technology, and NSO Group operates under Israeli export law. But the U.S. designation would bar the company from working with U.S. cybersecurity vendors and researchers to obtain the kind of security vulnerabilities it relies on to power its intrusion software without a waiver from the Commerce Department.

 

Recent articles by a global consortium of journalism organizations alleged that one of NSO Group's main software intrusion tools, known as Pegasus, has been used by dozens of law-enforcement and intelligence customers around the world to target and break into cellphones belonging to politicians, human-rights activists and journalists.

NSO Group has generally denied the reports and said a list of phone numbers said to include targets of Pegasus spyware used in the reporting is inaccurate.

"NSO Group is dismayed by the decision given that our technologies support U.S. national security interests and policies by preventing terrorism and crime, and thus we will advocate for this decision to be reversed," an NSO spokesman said in a statement.

NSO Group said it has terminated contracts with numerous governments that have abused its software and put in place compliance and human-rights programs.

Echoing findings of recent news reports, Commerce's new rule said NSO "developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments that used this tool to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers."

 

Israel's tech sector, the biggest driver of the country's economy, has longstanding links with the nation's military and defense sector.

 

A spokesman for the Israeli prime minister's office didn't respond to questions for comment.

NSO Group has been under fire for years by privacy advocates who have said it and firms like it sell high-powered hacking tools to governments with poor track records on human rights. The firm sells cybersecurity tools that can be used to remotely extract data from devices like phones and computers.” [1]

U.S. News: Israeli Firm Blacklisted in Hacking Allegation

Volz, Dustin; Tau, Byron.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 04 Nov 2021: A.2.