The Israeli importer of Nokia products said Wednesday that sales of its phones have risen 200% in the past week, due to Israeli concerns about spy software like NSO Group's Pegasus.
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Conventional devices have limited or no internet connectivity, do not allow browsing and do not have messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram and others, making them harder to infiltrate.
Financial newspaper Calcalist, which did not cite sources or evidence, reported Monday that spyware was deployed without the required judicial review against senior officials, mayors, social activists, journalists, and family members and advisers of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
According to data provided to Walla news, over the past three days, more than 4,000 Nokia phones were purchased. In the course of a week, between 1,000 and 2,000 devices are usually sold.
Liav Ron, Nokia brand manager at the H.Y. Group, told Walla that "there is a surge in the sale of older generation phones... These are simple phones that have seen a crazy increase in sales. It came out of nowhere."
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The simplest phone available, which includes only the ability to receive and make calls and send and receive text messages, cost roughly $30.
Phones from the once-ubiquitous Finnish company Nokia remain popular among some ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel, who avoid internet access but still want to be reachable when away from home. They are also sometimes used by elderly people who find smartphones difficult to handle.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
