NSO Group that is struck in a legal controversy for producing Pegasus Spyware has received a ban from United States and has been added to the US Trade Blacklist. So, from now on the company cannot buy any goods, services or licenses from the American companies and cannot sell its spyware on the American soil.
To those unfamiliar with the company’s whereabouts, here’s a gist. NSO Group based in Israel produces spyware and sells it to law enforcement agencies & governments across the world.
Yet, the company seems to indulge in despairing marketing tactics these days, as its spying software is found to be used by criminals from the dark web, who then sell it to some individuals or governments holding malicious intentions.
In 2019, Facebook that owns WhatsApp was accused of showing a blind eye towards some criminal tactics employed by a Saudi Prince who spied on the WhatsApp messages of over 1400 users through Pegasus Software and the victims list includes Amazon Boss Jeff Bezos and the Prince’s own wife along with France President Emmanuel Macron, to name some.
After seeing various developments, US Commerce Department on the orders of DHS issued a ban on NSO Group and its business subsidiary Candiru for producing malevolent software targeting governments, journalists, business people, activists, academics and embassy people and threatening the privacy and security of individuals/companies operating across the globe.
Note- Along with NSO Group Isreal, two other firms named Positive Technologies from Russia and Singapore Computer Security Initiative Consultancy PTE were also banned from conducting trade with any of the American company- over privacy and security issues.
