NSO ‘should be sanctioned’
Four Democratic lawmakers in Washington on Monday suggested blacklisting or imposing sanctions against the Israeli firm NSO Group that licensed spyware used by governments to hack the smartphones of journalists, human rights activists and business executives.
They also said recent revelations of misuse reinforced their conviction that the "hacking-for-hire industry must be brought under control".
The Democrats' statement was in response to an investigation by The Washington Post and 16 media partners into a list of phone numbers that included surveillance targets and that appeared to be concentrated in countries thought to have been clients of the NSO Group.
The findings of the Pegasus project reignited concerns about government surveillance carried out through technology provided by private companies.
"Enough is enough. The recent revelations regarding misuse of the NSO Group's software reinforce our conviction that the hacking for hire industry must be brought under control," Representatives Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), Katie Porter (D-Calif.), Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) and Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.) said in a joint statement.
The lawmakers added that companies that sell such tools to authoritarian regimes "should be sanctioned, and if necessary, shut down."
They called on the Commerce Department to consider adding the NSO Group and any companies engaged in similar behavior to its economic blacklist and to impose sanctions on its "abusive" clients under federal law.
Before publication of the investigation, known as the Pegasus Project, the NSO Group had called the probe's findings exaggerated and baseless. The firm also said it does not operate the spyware it licenses to clients and "has no insight" into its specific use, reports The Washington Post.
After publication, NSO co-founder Shalev Hulio said he was concerned by reports that journalists' phones had been hacked and promised an investigation.
In their statement, the House Democrats also called for the federal government to investigate reports of the spyware being used to target American journalists, aid workers and diplomats overseas and to establish a "sanctions regime to hold accountable individuals and companies that sell these tools to authoritarian states."
Meanwhile, about 1,000 Hungarians protested on Monday over allegations that the government used Israeli-made Pegasus spyware for illegal surveillance of public figures in Hungary, drawing comparisons with the country's communist past.
Protesters gathered at the House of Terror Museum in the capital, Budapest, which commemorates victims of Nazism and Communism, and marched to the headquarters of the governing Fidesz party, reports Reuters.
Criticising Prime Minister Viktor Orban, some chanted: "Victator."
"This (allegations of illegal surveillance) was the last straw for me," said one protester, Marcell Csupor. "This reminds me of communist systems, and shows that the country is breaking away from the West and drifting towards the East."
Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz will meet his French counterpart in Paris this week for talks that will include an "update" on the Pegasus spyware scandal, his office said yesterday.
A ministry statement said Gantz will leave today for talks with French Defence Minister Florence Parly.
Topics will include the crisis in Lebanon, nuclear negotiations with Iran and the Pegasus malware, which was allegedly used to target President Emmanuel Macron, reports AFP.
In Paris, a defence ministry source called the meeting "long-scheduled".
Parly would seek "to find out what knowledge the Israeli government had of the activities of NSO's clients, and what arrangements were put in place -- and will be in the future -- to prevent these highly intrusive tools being hijacked", the source said.
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