Israeli Company NSO Group Accused Of Being Involved In Spyware Spread And Hacking-for-Hire

British Senior Minister Oliver Dowden. (photo: Twitter @OliverDowden)

JAKARTA - British officials issued warnings about the widespread misuse of surveillance software and hacker-for-hire. They say that thousands of people are targeted annually by industries that they describe as increasingly unpredictable threats.

A report published by the UK's National Cybersecurity Center (NCSC), part of the GCHQ spy agency, revealed that the mercy hacking market offers products that are aligned with government hacking groups.

"There is a new front that is currently open, when we see more opponents being able to buy and sell advanced cyber equipment and spyware like Pegasus," said England Senior Minister Oliver Dowden, at an NCSC conference in Belfast on Wednesday, April 19, referring to NSO Group's spyware. from Israel.

"These tools are a type of tool we used to only look at some of the country's powerful actors and could cause serious damage," Dowden added.

In a statement, NSO repeated their old claim that their technology was used "for the purpose of countering crime and terrorism".

Reuters previously documented how the company's software was used to target the phones of American diplomats and EU officials. Journalists and researchers have recorded a series of other alleged abuses.

NCSC also warned about hacker-for-hire, a mercy spy whose activity is said to "enhancing the possibility of unpredictable targeting or accidental escalation".

The report comes as some inside the surveillance industry look at future regulations and take steps to try to form them. In a letter sent last week to the American Bar Association, NSO General Counsel, Shmuel Sunray, lobbied the proposed ABA resolution calling for a moratorium on the purchase, sale, or use of commercial spyware, saying the company with a "defined human rights compliance program" - which according to NSO they already own - should be excluded from such a ban. While ABA declined to comment.