The newly appointed CEO of NSO Group that produced Pegasus Spying malware has submitted his resignation on Monday this week. The development was observed after his company was added to the list of United States Department of Commerce Blacklist, putting a big dent to the business of the American software maker.
Isaac Benbenisti was announced as the CEO of NSO Group on October 30th, 2021 and was about to take on the leadership role. However, since the Biden administration announced a ban on the espionage software maker, the Chief Executive Officer quit the designation as there was not much scope left for the company to conduct business in America.
Mr. Benbenisti hasn’t made it official that he is quitting the post and the company. However, sources say that Ex-Co-President has submitted the resignation to the board that permitted him to quit the post, but not as the company’s C-level employee.
To those unaware of the developments, Biden administration took a serious stand on the privacy concerns of its populace by banning companies that were indulging in business operations, causing dent to the national security or the foreign policy interests’ act of America. So, as a part of this ban, NSO group is not allowed to procure any goods or services from US and will not be allowed to sell its software to global companies.
Along with NSO, the other 3 companies which have been added to the blacklist are Singapore-based Computer Security Initiative Consultancy PTE, LTD; Russian based Positive Technologies and Israel-based Candiru.
Note- Israel-based NSO Group is allegedly caught in a data collection scandal where several governments across the globe such as India, UK and US have been alleging that its Pegasus spying software is being misused by adversaries for conducting espionage on diplomats, journalists, politicians and clergy members hailing from several countries.
