Long-time readers may remember the software, some call it malware, created and distributed by NSO Group of Israel, which broke into phones, given a little help, aka phishing, by the phone’s owner. This was in 2016; now that it’s 2021, it appears the American response has been updated, as WaPo reports:
The United States on Wednesday added the Israeli spyware company NSO Group to its “entity list,” a federal blacklist prohibiting the company from receiving American technologies, after determining that its phone-hacking tools had been used by foreign governments to “maliciously target” government officials, activists, journalists, academics and embassy workers around the world.
The move is a significant sanction against a company spotlighted in July in an investigation by the global Pegasus Project consortium, which includes The Washington Post and 16 other news organizations worldwide. The consortium published dozens of articles detailing how NSO customers had misused its powerful spyware, Pegasus.
The move could also raise tensions between the United States and Israel, where NSO is a prized technological powerhouse. Exports of NSO’s software are regulated by Israel’s Ministry of Defense, which must approve them as it would any weapons sale.
That last paragraph leaves me to wonder if the United States has misjudged the situation – or if Israel’s MoD has a problem, either of corruption or not in alignment with general liberal democracy goals.
If Israel or NSO cannot find a way to take them off the list, NSO may gradually disintegrate:
The entity list designation prohibits export from the United States to NSO of any type of hardware or software, severing the company from a vital source of technology. It could also hinder future business arrangements and challenge the firm’s ability to work as an international company.
“The impact is broader than just the legal prohibition,” said Kevin Wolf, an international trade lawyer at the Akin Gump law firm who previously ran the entity list process. “It’s a huge red flag.”
Not that America is the only source of innovation, both in hardware and software – but Americans are a very significant source. If NSO is cut off from an important input source, the people who do the work may leave for greener pastures.
Death by a thousand cuts.
