The move was made after the department ruled that NSO Group engaged “in activities that are contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the US”….reports Asian Lite News
Israeli spyware company NSO Group said that it will work to reverse the US decision to blacklist the controversial company.
Earlier on Wednesday, the US Department of Commerce announced in a statement that it added NSO Group, along with three other foreign companies, to the “entity list”, a blacklist prohibiting firms from receiving American technologies, reports Xinhua news agency.
The move was made after the department ruled that NSO Group engaged “in activities that are contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the US”.
NSO Group issued a statement saying the company was “dismayed” by the decision and “will advocate for this decision to be reversed”. “Our technologies support US national security interests and policies by preventing terrorism and crime,” the company said.
NSO Group has developed Pegasus, a powerful phone-hacking tool. It is reported that Pegasus was misused by several governments to target officials, journalists, activists, and academics.
The action is part of the Biden administration’s ‘efforts to put human rights at the centre of US foreign policy, including by working to stem the proliferation of digital tools used for repression’, according to the US Commerce Department.
US Secretary of Commerce Gina M Raimondo said in a statement on Wednesday: “The United States is committed to aggressively using export controls to hold companies accountable that develop, traffic, or use technologies to conduct malicious activities that threaten the cybersecurity of members of civil society, dissidents, government officials, and organizations here and abroad.”
The move is a significant sanction against a company spotlighted in July by the global Pegasus Project consortium, including The Washington Post and 16 other news organisations worldwide. The consortium published dozens of articles detailing misuse of the Pegasus spyware by customers of NSO.
The NSO Group has consistently denied the findings of the Pegasus Project, which found that some of NSO’s dozens of law enforcement, military and intelligence customers in more than 40 countries target journalists, politicians and human rights workers on a routine basis with Pegasus, which can hack into a victim’s cellphone. NSO has acknowledged problems with certain customers in the past, according to The Washington Post.
Last month, the Supreme Court formed a three-member committee to oversee a technical committee comprising of three members, including those who are experts in cyber security, digital forensics, networks and hardware, which will probe the Pegasus spyware case. (IANS/ANI)
