Israel’s defense committee is all set to discuss the use of Offensive Cyber Arms after it received a lot of backlash from international nations. However, the discussions will be held by the top ministers behind the doors and the talking points might not be disclosed to the public, says a report published in Israeli news daily Haaretz.
After the disclosure of NSO Group’s plugged spyware Pegasus, a lot of countries like India, Singapore and Philippines have urged their Israeli authorities to ban the companies that develop or encourage the use of such software tools.
Therefore, the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee has discussed the revelations made not just by NSO Group’s Pegasus malware, but also about companies like Candiru and Quadream that involve in such offensive businesses.
Ram Ben Barak, the lawmaker, is said to lead the committee that is scheduled to meet on August 9th of this year and will then on be led by a small sub-committee that will include a few former personnel from military intelligence and defense.
Decision to ban the operations of companies that supply spyware to other governments might also be discussed in the meeting. However, banning a private technology firm from conducting business operations might be behind the law, and the lawmakers will have to think twice before taking a harsh decision.
NOTE- NSO Group is found developing surveillance software that is supplied to governments to conduct espionage on their populace and adversaries. Pegasus is one such product that is distributed as a spyware and has the potential to transmit docs, photos, call records, messages, videos and other such files from infected devices to remote servers.
