The Israeli NSA Group has denied media reports that the Pegasus software was linked to mass monitoring of journalists and human rights activists, but has reportedly stopped working for some governments.
Joel Sagitt / AFP via AJT images
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Joel Sagitt / AFP via AJT images
The Israeli NSA Group has denied media reports that the Pegasus software was linked to mass monitoring of journalists and human rights activists, but has reportedly stopped working for some governments.
Joel Sagitt / AFP via AJT images
Israeli spy agency NSO Group has temporarily blocked the use of the technology by several government customers around the world during an investigation into abuse, a company employee told NPP on Thursday.
The ban is in response to an investigation by the Union of Media, which reports that the company’s Spyware report could monitor the phones of journalists, human rights activists and government leaders.
According to reports, the company has been under surveillance. The Israeli government has come under pressure after controlling the sale of spyware technology to other countries. The company now says it has blocked some customers from accessing the technology.
“Some customers are under investigation. “Some of these customers have been temporarily suspended,” said a company source who spoke to NPR. This is not the case with the horrific and defamatory campaign.
Israeli officials visited the NSN office in Herzriya, near Tel Aviv, on Wednesday to “review the allegations against the company,” the defense ministry said in a statement. The NSA staffer wanted to assure Israeli officials that the company was fully cooperating with the investigation and that the individuals in the media were not targeted by Pegasus.
An Israeli company regulation prohibits the company from identifying its customers, citing a recent employee ban on the use of spyware by government agencies – or their countries.
The NSO says it has 60 clients in 40 countries, all of them intelligence agencies, law enforcement agencies and the military. He said he had blocked the software from five government agencies, including two, in the past year after receiving evidence of abuse in the media in recent years. According to the Washington Post, their clients include Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Dubai, and some public organizations in Mexico.
The company claims to sell spyware only to countries fighting terrorism and crime, but recent reports say the NAAS has spoken to countries under surveillance and dozens of smartphones have been seized by spyware.
………… “Almost all of us have verified, we have no contact with Pegasus,” the official said. He denied the allegations in a statement issued Friday stating “Similar, baseless allegations concerning human rights have been made more than once.
Media coverage of French President Emmanuel Macron’s phone has been listed as a potential target in Morocco, and the slain Saudi journalist’s fiancé, Jamal Kashoggi, has reported that he has joined the ANAS with Pegasus Spyware. An NSA official said the company’s investigation did not identify the two with Pegasus.
About three weeks before the publication of the Pegasus Project Stories, NSO released its first report outlining its policies on combating technology abuse and human rights. It cites a new system approved last year to investigate allegations of software abuse.
Samuel Senrai, a general adviser to the NSA Group, said the company’s extensive investigation was inappropriate, given its own vetting efforts.
What we are doing today, I think, is the best measure that can be achieved, ”Soneri told NPR. I think we, on the one hand, are the leaders of the world in respect for our human rights, and on the other hand, we are the children of human rights abuses.