Herzliya: a politician at Israeli cybersecurity company NSO Group said Wednesday that the firm’s controversial Pegasus spyware tool wasn’t wont to target French President Emmanuel Macron.
The comments came as Reporters borderless (RSF) urged Israel to suspend exports of the spying technology after heads of state — including Macron — and many journalists and rights activists featured on an inventory of alleged targets selected for potential surveillance.
We can “specifically begin and say needless to say that the president of France, Macron, wasn’t a target,” Chaim Gelfand, chief compliance officer at NSO Group, told the i24 News television network.
But he also alluded to “some cases mentioned that we aren’t so comfortable with”, noting that in such circumstances the firm “usually approaches the customer and features a whole long discussion… to undertake to know what were his legitimate reasons, if any, to use the system.”
Gelfand’s comments were broadcast on an equivalent day that RSF head Christophe Deloire called on Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett “to impose an instantaneous moratorium on surveillance technology exports, until a protective regulatory framework has been established”.
Deloire’s call came after an inventory was leaked of some 50,000 phone numbers believed to possess been chosen by clients of NSO Group. The numbers purportedly included those of Macron, and 13 other heads of state.
Pegasus can hack into mobile phones without a user knowing, enabling clients to read every message, track a user’s location and tap into the phone’s camera and microphone.
Contracts with 45 countries
NSO has contracts with 45 countries, and says Israel’s defence ministry must approve its deals. the corporate doesn’t identify its customers.
However, rights group Amnesty International and therefore the Paris-based organisation Forbidden Stories that obtained the list, said NSO’s government clients include Bahrain, India, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda and Saudi Arabia .
Reporting by media outlets including The Guardian, Le Monde and therefore the Washington Post found that almost 200 journalists from organisations including AFP were on the list.
“Enabling governments to put in spyware that’s utilized in practice to watch many journalists and their sources throughout the planet poses a serious democratic problem,” Deloire said.
Spokespeople for Bennett and Defence Minister Benny Gantz didn’t answer questions from AFP on Wednesday.
NSO, an enormous of Israeli tech, is predicated in Herzliya north of Tel Aviv , and has 850 employees.
Its CEO Shalev Hulio, 39, denied in an interview with Israel’s 103FM radio on Tuesday that his company was engaged in mass surveillance.
He said NSO had “no connection” to the list of thousands of phone numbers.
On Wednesday, Bennett touted Israeli technological prowess at a cyber conference in Tel Aviv .
“Of every $100 invested in cyber defence across the planet , $41 of these were invested in Israeli cyber defence firms,” he said.
“We as a government, we as a nation, need to defend ourselves,” Bennett added.
He suggested global interest in Israeli technology remained robust, saying “dozens of countries” signed memorandums to get Israeli tools that defend against cyber attacks.
A further statement on Wednesday by NSO claimed that the firm was a victim of a “vicious and slanderous campaign”, which it might not answer media questions.
“Any claim that a reputation within the list is necessarily associated with a Pegasus target or Pegasus potential target is erroneous and false,” it said.
“NSO may be a technology company. We don’t operate the system, nor can we have access to the info of our customers, yet they’re obligated to supply us with such information under investigations,” the corporate added.
On Tuesday, Gantz said Israel approves export of technology only to governments “exclusively for the needs of preventing and investigating crime and terrorism”.
