Tag Archives: Pegasus spyware

The Silent Spying Device in Your Pocket: Who is Afraid of Pegasus?

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NSO Group, the Israeli company behind Pegasus spyware, says a group of investors led by Hollywood producer Robert Simonds has acquired a controlling stake in the firm, which has named a former Trump official to lead an effort to restore its battered reputation. The company, which has faced lawsuits and U.S. government sanctions since revelations that its technology was used to spy on political dissidents, human-rights advocates, journalists and American officials, declined to disclose the purchase price.

NSO’s new executive chairman, David Friedman, a former U.S. ambassador to Israel and onetime bankruptcy lawyer for President Trump, said he wants to use his ties to the Trump administration to help rebuild the company’s spyware business in the U.S…NSO’s flagship product, Pegasus, has used WhatsApp to infiltrate phones without the target having to do or tap on anything. The spyware has also been sent to phones via links in messages, according to security researchers. Pegasus can turn a smartphone into a silent spying device by gaining access to its files, messages, microphone and camera, they say.

In 2021, the Biden administration placed NSO on an export-prohibition list that restricted the firm from obtaining some types of technology from the U.S. In 2023, President Biden signed an executive order banning government agencies and departments from using commercial spyware that “poses risks to national security or has been misused by foreign actors to enable human rights abuses around the world.” Unless Biden’s executive order is rescinded, it is unlikely U.S. government agencies would do business with NSO.

Intelligence agencies such as the U.S. National Security Agency and the U.K.’s Government Communications Headquarters routinely use hacking tools. NSO often sells such cyber capabilities to countries that don’t have their own. Friedman said his pitch to the U.S. government is that NSO’s products will make America safer. NSO says its products can be used by government agencies to fight terrorism and crime by allowing them access to encrypted messaging systems such as WhatsApp….

In 2019, WhatsApp’s parent company, now called Meta, sued NSO over what it alleged was a breach of its servers to install NSO’s malware on target devices. In July 2025, the six-year trial came to an end, with a federal jury in California ordering NSO to pay Meta $168 million in damages. In October 2025, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California reduced the fine NSO was ordered to pay Meta down to $4 million. But in the same ruling, the judge ordered NSO to stop targeting WhatsApp, in a move that the company said during its defense could put it out of business. NSO is appealing the decision against targeting WhatsApp, and is filing for a stay.

Excerpt from Dov Lieber, Israeli Spyware Maker NSO Gets New Owners, Leadership and Seeks to Mend Reputation, WSJ, Nov. 9, 2025

What does Silicon Valley and the Israeli Army have In Common

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Members of Unit 8200 of the Israeli Army, known for its advanced cybersecurity and cyberwarfare capabilities, have founded dozens of cybersecurity companies in the United States. Others have become influential venture capitalists in their own rights and are mentors to entrepreneurial graduates.  There are at least five tech companies started by Unit 8200 alumni publicly traded in the U.S., together worth around $160 billion. Private companies started by ex-8200 soldiers are worth billions more.  The largest, cloud-security company Wiz, in July 2024 came close to signing a $23 billion deal to be bought by Google. It would have been Google’s biggest acquisition ever. After the talks fell apart, Wiz Chief Executive and 8200 veteran Assaf Rappaport told employees he wants to hit $1 billion in revenue before planning a public-market listing. 

Wiz and the 8200 alumni are targeting a massive business problem—how to keep big companies secure—with skills and an intensity they learned from their time in the military. They and the companies they’ve built have become hot commodities as more industries move huge amounts of business documents to the cloud—which is constantly under attack from opportunistic hackers. While Unit 8200 alumni once talked about their service in hushed tones, they now tout it in press releases to attract clients and investment money for their startups.

Palo Alto Networks, the biggest publicly traded cybersecurity company, and itself a product of the 8200 pipeline, has purchased several companies led by alumni of the unit in recent years. Greylock Partners and Sequoia Capital, two of Silicon Valley’s most storied venture-capital firms, have recently hired Israel-based partners…

Elsewhere, alumni of other Israeli military units founded cybersecurity company NSO Group. It created software called Pegasus, which has been used by governments to access the devices of journalists and embassy workers, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. The department put NSO Group on an export prohibition list three years ago, a decision its executives are working to reverse. This means exports from the U.S. to the company of both hardware and software will be blocked, unless the Commerce Department grants a license for a transaction.  

Excerpt from Miles Kruppa and Alex Perry, Silicon Valley in Love with Israeli Army, WSJ, Aug. 31, 2024

From Pegasus to Pariah: Israeli Spying is Not Sexy

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When international news organizations revealed that at least ten governments had used Pegasus, a powerful software tool created by Israel’s NSO Group, to hack into the smartphones of thousands of people around the world, including politicians, human-rights activists and journalists, the Israeli government shrugged. None of its ministers has publicly commented….Israeli defence exporters privately expressed ridicule. “Arms companies can’t keep track of every rifle and bullet they sell to legitimate customers,” said one. “Why should we have higher expectations when it comes to software?…Israeli spying is a sexy subject and these reports are the price for doing business.”

Countries that have received Pegasus software include Brazil, Hungary and India, along with Sunni Arab regimes with whom Israel recently established diplomatic relations: Bahrain, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. Saudi Arabia, a fellow enemy of Iran, is listed, too. “Deals on cyber-surveillance are the kind of sweetener you can throw into a diplomatic package with a foreign leader,” says a former NSO consultant.

Excerpts from Let Pegasus fly: Israel is loth to regulate its spyware exports, Economist, July 31, 2021