Friedman, former US ambassador to Israel, told Israel Hayom in an interview marking his appointment that the Biden administration's decision "to punish NSO was political. It was made by people in the Biden administration who are not particularly strong supporters of Israel. Clearly, today we are in a very different world. We have the most supportive president in US history when it comes to Israel."

In 2021, the Biden administration determined NSO acted "contrary to US foreign policy and national security interests." Following this, then-President Joe Biden banned NSO from purchasing certain technologies in the US. Subsequently, in 2023, Biden signed an order restricting the use of the company's commercial spyware software.

An Israel Hayom investigation revealed at the time that the American measures, which apparently occurred deliberately, collapsed Israel's offensive cyber industry, of which NSO was the spearhead.

"Biden was not helpful"

Friedman confirmed in the interview that the company he will lead was indeed harmed. "NSO continued to operate throughout this difficult period, but it was a significant setback for the company. It didn't remove it from the market, but it certainly caused a decline in its client base and revenues. So the Biden administration was not particularly helpful to the company."

"So will you remove NSO from what's called 'the blacklist'?" Israel Hayom asked him, and Friedman responded, "I have several goals from the moment I start the position. One is generally to grow the company. And second, to rehabilitate and promote its credibility among clients and in the global market. I hope people will understand that all of NSO's goals are to do good, prevent crime, and prevent terrorist attacks. That's what the company exists for. So I will try. I intend to present to the US government the argument that NSO is an asset America needs and in America's interest. NSO will make America safer than it is now. I hope to present that argument. I cannot predict what will happen, and I don't want to discuss the outcome further."

Friedman again denied claims that NSO violated international law, as was alleged against it at the time. He explained, "NSO grants countries licenses to use its technology. It receives assurances from those countries that the technology will be used only for legitimate purposes, such as stopping crime and terror. Many years ago, there were cases where claims arose that the technology was used for improper purposes, like spying on journalists or political rivals. NSO never approved that and never agreed to it. The contract with them prohibited it, and it took appropriate steps to prevent it. So it wasn't the technology that caused these things to happen, but improper use by the clients. Today, we have very strong tools, protocols, and procedures to ensure this won't happen in the future. However, even in the past, it's akin to a manufacturer providing weapons to a country. It doesn't fire the gun and doesn't operate the bomb. So such things happen, and I hope they won't happen again. But the criticism of NSO, even then, was unfair."

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The ruling represents a significant victory for privacy advocates and those opposing NSO Group's controversial Pegasus software. The Israeli company has become the most prominent example of the largely hidden spyware industry, which governments increasingly employ to monitor dissidents, journalists, and politicians. NSO Group has consistently rejected criticism, arguing that its Pegasus spyware has been used beneficially, such as in capturing high-profile criminals.

This court decision marks the latest development in legal proceedings that began in 2019, Politico reported. The ruling requires NSO Group to pay WhatsApp punitive damages of around $167 million in addition to more than $440,000 in compensatory damages following one day of jury deliberation, a Meta spokesperson said.

The case stems from an operation connected to NSO Group that attempted to exploit video calling systems and deliver malware to approximately 1,400 WhatsApp users in 2019, many working for civil society organizations, Politico reported. WhatsApp filed a legal complaint after discovering the scheme.

NSO Group had previously been found liable for hacking the WhatsApp user accounts, establishing a precedent for organizations targeted by spyware to take legal action against companies that create such malicious software.

Meta published a post shortly after the ruling celebrating the victory and indicated that WhatsApp will seek a court order to "prevent NSO from ever targeting WhatsApp again." The post added that Meta will make an unspecified donation to digital rights organizations that work to expose spyware abuses. Additionally, WhatsApp plans to release transcripts of deposition videos from NSO Group executives and others to help researchers understand the full extent of spyware use globally.

"Today's verdict in WhatsApp's case is an important step forward for privacy and security as the first victory against the development and use of illegal spyware that threatens the safety and privacy of everyone," the post reads.

Apple had also filed a lawsuit against NSO Group, seeking damages for spyware used against its customers. However, Apple ultimately dropped the case last year after concluding that pursuing it might expose sensitive Apple user data.

Gil Lainer, vice president of global communications for NSO Group, said in a statement Tuesday that the decision is "another stope in a lengthy judicial process," and that "we firmly believe that our technology plays a critical role in preventing serious crime and terrorism and is deployed responsibly by authorized government agencies."

"We will carefully examine the verdict's details and pursue appropriate legal remedies, including further proceedings and an appeal," Lainer said, adding that the company "remains fully committed to its mission to develop technologies that protect public safety" while working within legal frameworks.

NSO Group was added to the Commerce Department's entity list in 2021, making it difficult for the company to conduct business in the US. Meanwhile, the European Parliament has established a committee to investigate Pegasus use across EU nations.

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The special committee investigating the so-called Pegasus Affair over improper use of spyware by state agencies has postponed Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara's interview until the Supreme Court determines the scope of the investigation,  Israel Hayom has learned.

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This decision comes after Baharav-Miara, in a letter to the committee, made it clear that any meeting would only take place after the justices weighed in on the petitions that have challenged the committee's authority.

Video: AG Baharav-Miara sworn in // Credit: GPO

The affair deals with the spyware known as Pegasus. The Israeli company NSO has been accused of selling the program to various regimes around the world who then reportedly used it for their own domestic spying against dissidents and various other groups. NSO has long claimed that all exports and transactions were approved by the relevant Israeli authorities and that in no way was it involved in human rights abuses and other potential uses that were not authorized. In Israel, there have been accusations that the program was used by law enforcement without getting a proper warrant to create real-time wiretapping of officials' devices. Police have denied any wrongdoing. An investigation commissioned by then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, which consulted NSO's logs of clients' surveillance targets, found the reports to be unfounded.

Israel Hayom has learned that the attorney general has so far declined every proposed meeting date offered by the committee.

Earlier this month, the committee had invited her to appear before it in its inaugural session. The committee said that she could use the meeting to present her views over the scope of its authority, particularly on whether it could deal with ongoing cases and on the contentious issue of the Pegasus spyware potentially having been used in the investigations into Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cases – which have since turned into a full-fledged trial – involved the illicit use of spyware.

Baharav-Miara had previously said that the committee had no authority to investigate the open cases involving Netanyahu, but Justice Minister Yariv Levin went on to establish the investigative body anyway, prompting the legal challenges by former security officials, including former Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman and former Defense Ministry Director-General Amir Eshel.

As indicated in her recent response letter to the committee, Baharav-Miara stated that she would only show up for a meeting of this nature after the Supreme Court rules on the committee. If the committee decides not to proceed with its investigation and waits for the meeting, this could potentially result in a delay of months in the committee's work.

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The cabinet passed a resolution on Sunday authorizing the creation of a special committee to investigate the so-called Pegasus affair, in which law enforcement officials allegedly used spyware improperly against Israeli citizens. 

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Israel Hayom first reported on the expected vote earlier in August, prompting Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara to warn that the committee would have no jurisdiction to investigate the Israel Police over pending cases in the judiciary, presumably referring, inter alia, to the trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose supporters say was interrogated using unfair practices. 

Video: Accusations over the Pegasus spyware / Credit: Knesset channel

The cabinet meeting lasted for several hours, culminating with a vote to empower the future committee to review the conduct of the police, as well as prosecutors, and the various oversight mechanisms regarding the use of cyber tools, including Pegasus – software that was developed by the Israeli company NSO. 

According to various uncorroborated reports, NSO sold the program to various regimes around the world who then used it for their own domestic spying against dissidents and various other groups.   NSO has long claimed that all exports and transactions were approved by the relevant Israeli authorities and that in no way was it involved in human rights abuses and other potential uses that were not authorized. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not participate in the vote on Sunday and left the discussion, presumably because of a conflict of interest.  During the debate, Justice Minister Levin attacked the representative of the State Attorney's Office. "They think we are all idiots," he reportedly said. 

Baharav-Miara reiterated her warning on Sunday in a letter to ministers that it would be "forbidden to have open cases such as the Netanyahu cases come under the purview of the committee, and there is a fear of conflict of interest by the prime minister." She also said that the committee's conduct could create a legal morass because of "objections by the National Security Council, the Shin Bet security agency, and the Israel Police to the creation of the committee for fear of exposing the capabilities of the fight against serious crime and maintaining the security of the state."

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Spain's High Court on Tuesday called the chief executive officer of Israel's software firm NSO Group to testify as a witness in a case opened over the use of its Pegasus software to spy on Spanish politicians.

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Judge Jose Luis Calama will travel to Israel to question the CEO as part of a so-called rogatory commission to investigate the spying, the court said on Tuesday in a statement, without providing a date for the testimony.

The judge opened the investigation after the government said Pegasus software was used to spy on ministers, triggering a political crisis in Spain that led to the resignation of its spy chief Paz Esteban last month.

The government hasn't elaborated on the circumstances of the snooping on the ministers, including Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Defense Minister Margarita Robles and Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska, or who was behind it.

The judge has also lifted the secrecy of the documents related to the case, the statement said, paving the way for the disclosure of some details kept confidential until now. The court had already asked NSO to give information on some aspects of the Pegasus spyware, which was reportedly used in other parts of the world by authoritarian rulers to spy on opposition politicians and civil society activists.

"NSO operates under a strict legal framework, and is confident that this will be the result any government inquiry will reach," the company told Reuters in an email, without detailing whether its CEO Shalev Hulio will respond to the questions of the Spanish judge.

The High Court also called Parliamentary Affairs Minister Felix Bolanos to testify on July 5 as a witness and said the judge had already interviewed former Spanish spy chief Esteban.

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The Israeli tech company NSO Group on Sunday filed a libel lawsuit against an Israeli newspaper after it published a series of explosive articles claiming Israeli police unlawfully used its spyware on dozens of public figures.

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The articles by the Israeli business newspaper Calcalist published over recent weeks triggered an uproar over what the newspaper claimed was the police's unfettered use of sophisticated phone hacking software on a broad swath of figures. An investigation into the reports, which were unsourced, found no indication of abuse.

The NSO suit targets a specific article published earlier this month, which said the company allowed clients to delete traces of their use of the spyware, a claim it denies. But the company, which has faced a growing backlash over its product, questioned the overall credibility of the reports, calling the series of articles "one-sided, biased and false."

"The thorough investigation that was carried out pulls the rug out from under another attempt to discredit the company and its workers and serves as additional proof that not every journalistic investigation with a sensational headline about NSO is indeed based on facts," the company said in a statement.

NSO was asking for 1 million shekels ($310,000) in damages that it said would be donated to charity.

The Calcalist reports said police spied on politicians, protesters and even members of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's inner circle, including one of his sons. The paper said police used Pegasus, the controversial spyware program developed by NSO, without obtaining a court warrant.

The investigation led by Israel's deputy attorney general found no evidence to support the claims, although the journalist, Tomer Ganon, has stood by his work. The investigation's findings were a rare piece of good news for NSO, which has faced mounting criticism over the spyware.

Pegasus is a powerful tool that allows its operator to infiltrate a target's phone and sweep up its contents, including messages, contacts and location history.

NSO has been linked to snooping on human rights activists, journalists and politicians in countries ranging from Saudi Arabia to Poland to Mexico to the United Arab Emirates. In November, the US Commerce Department blacklisted the company, saying its tools had been used to "conduct transnational repression."

NSO says it sells the product only to government entities to fight crime and terrorism, with all sales regulated by the Israeli government.

The company does not identify its clients and says it has no knowledge of who is targeted. Although it says it has safeguards in place to prevent abuse, it says it ultimately does not control how its clients use the software.

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Executive Chairman of NSO Group Asher Levi resigned from his position at the cyber surveillance firm on Tuesday.

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Earlier in the week, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit ordered an investigation into the Israel Police's alleged use of NSO surveillance technology against civilians without authorization.

It is unclear whether NSO's now-infamous Pegasus spyware was used or if another software was employed.

Nevertheless, Levi said his resignation was unrelated to the recent reports. He explained he had been appointed by Novalpina Capital – a venture capital fund that had acquired NSO – but the company has since been purchased by Berkeley Research Group, prompting a decision to appoint a new chairman.

"Despite reports in the last few hours with regard to my position as executive chairman, I would like to clarify that there is no connection between the end of my term and the latest reports about NSO," Levi said. "Novalpina Capital brought me in in April 2020. About five months later it was replaced by BRG, and as expected from a senior official, I turned to the new fund asking them to appoint a representative of their own."

According to allegations against NSO, police monitored the leaders of a protest movement against then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mayors, and other citizens without court approval. But Mendelblit said many questions remained unanswered, and that he was forming an investigative committee headed by a top deputy.

The police have dismissed the report as inaccurate and said they only operate according to the law. But the publication drew an outcry from lawmakers and prompted multiple investigations by various Israeli authorities.

NSO has faced mounting scrutiny over its Pegasus software, which has been linked to snooping on human rights activists, journalists, and politicians across the globe. In November, the US Commerce Department blacklisted the spyware company, barring it from using certain US technologies, saying its tools had been used to "conduct translational repression."

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The State Comptroller has opened an investigation into the alleged use of sophisticated spyware on Israeli citizens by law enforcement agencies following a report by financial newspaper Calcalist.

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The State Comptroller's office said it "places special emphasis on protecting the privacy of Israeli citizens and residents. The technological means serve as evidence in criminal proceedings and raise questions as to the balance between their usefulness and the violation of the right to privacy and additional freedoms. These means also pose risks of leaking personal information and the misuse of databases. As a result, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman decided to include in the long-established office work plan the issue of law enforcement agencies' use of technologies for enforcement purposes."

According to the Calcalist report, police used the NSO spyware Pegasus to surveil leaders of protests against Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu in 2020, who was then prime minister. It said police also hacked the phones of two sitting mayors suspected of corruption and numerous other Israeli citizens, all without a court order or a judge's oversight.

The Israel Police denied the allegations, saying they operate according to the law, and the NSO Group said it does not identify its clients.

The company says its products are intended to be used against criminals and terrorists, and that it does not control how its clients use the software. Israel, which regulates the company, has not said whether its own security forces use the spyware.

The report, which cited no current or formal officials from the government, police or NSO corroborating the paper's claims, referred to eight alleged examples of the police's secretive signal intelligence unit employing Pegasus to surveil Israeli citizens, including hacking phones of a murder suspect and opponents of the Jerusalem Pride Parade. The report did not name any of the people whose phones were allegedly hacked by the police.

"In all the cases mentioned in the article, and in other instances, use of Pegasus was made at the sole discretion of senior police officers," the report said. "The significance is that with Pegasus, the police can effectively hack without asking a court, without a search or entry warrant, without oversight, to all cell phones."

The Privacy Protection Authority said it was concerned by reports that the Israel Police was allegedly using the Pegasus program to monitor Israeli citizens and had contacted Israel Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai to "examine the repercussions of the use of the program for citizens' personal information."

The authority emphasized "that to the extent that the police use the Pegasus software to monitor Israeli citizens, this is a serious violation of the privacy of the citizens on whom the surveillance is carried out." 

Refraining from commenting specifically on the Calcalist report, the authority said, "The use of technological systems for monitoring citizens, including within the framework of the war on crime, is a mechanism that inevitably includes a serious violation of citizens' privacy, and implies a violation of the autonomy of each and every one of us, an individual's ability to exercise their full rights, and the democratic nature of Israeli society." It noted "an urgent meeting was requested with the police commissioner and at the same time, for the police to respond to the authority's request for clarifications on the matter. "

The report sparked an outcry across Israel's political spectrum.

Energy Minister Karine Elharrar told Army Radio that such surveillance "was something that a democratic country cannot allow."

Likud MK Yuval Steinitz said that surveillance of citizens by law enforcement without judicial oversight is improper and that if the claims are correct, it should be investigated.

Public Security Minister Omer Barlev, whose department oversees the police, tweeted that he would verify that police received explicit authorization from a judge to use the spyware.

Shas has called on the Knesset speaker to launch a parliamentary investigation. Yesh Atid MK Merav Ben Ari, who heads the Knesset's public security committee, said the panel would hold a hearing into the report's claims.

The Israel Police issued a statement after the report's publication, saying that "there's no truth to the claims raised in the article" and that "all police operations in this field are in accordance with the law, in line with court orders and meticulous protocols."

Senior police officials asked for any evidence of illegal wiretapping to be handed over to the police. They noted the Israel Police's National Cyber Crime Unit "was established in light of the need to fight major crime in the digital era, to prevent murders, car explosions, and public vandalism, among other things solely in accordance with the law." 

They emphasized that on the issue of wire-tapping, "We operate with internal oversight, from the issuance of an order, its implementation, through providing a report to the [police] commissioner, and all this in an orderly report to the Knesset and the Law and Justice Committee."

The police do not wire-tap protesters, they said, noting, "We only use [such] tools to combat crime. The activity is not used on normative citizens. These are regulated tools that receive the relevant legal authorizations before they are brought into service. You cannot contend with crime by relying on tools from 1948. And we therefore need advanced technology.

Likud MK Amir Ohana, who was public security minister during the protests, said he had no knowledge of the reported surveillance.

The Black Flag protest movement, whose leaders were allegedly surveilled during weekly demonstrations in recent years calling on Netanyahu to resign, called on the police to release the names of the people whose phones were hacked. Spokesman Roee Neuman said the protest leaders only learned of the digital surveillance following the publication of the report.

Pegasus software surreptitiously grants full access to a person's cellphone, including real-time communications.

Tuesday's report was the latest blow for the company, which has faced growing scrutiny and criticism for its software's use by repressive governments.

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European Parliament lawmakers called Wednesday for a committee to investigate alleged rights abuses by European Union governments using powerful spyware produced by Israel's NSO Group.

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Meanwhile, the Polish Senate formally approved the formation of a committee to investigate evidence that three critics of the country's right-wing government were hacked with the spyware. Sen. Marcin Bosacki, who will lead the inquiry, said the step was needed "due to the deepest concern for our democracy and the future of the Polish state."

Renew Europe, a liberal political group that is the third-largest in the European Parliament, made its appeal for the European-wide inquiry following reports that NSO Group's Pegasus software has been used to hack the smartphones of opposition politicians, lawyers, journalists and critics of the right-wing governments in Hungary and Poland.

"We need a full inquiry into the Pegasus spyware scandal. European democracy is being undermined and the EU should act accordingly," said Sophie in 't Veld, a Dutch member of the European Parliament. "We cannot let this pass. Our democracy is at stake."

She said the European Commission, the executive branch for the 27-nation bloc, should follow the example of the US government and "quickly blacklist Pegasus' parent company NSO."

The Biden administration put new export limits in November on Israel's NSO Group, saying its tools have been used to "conduct transnational repression."

Renew said in a statement that it hopes other groups will support its call, noting that an inquiry would constitute the first action on the matter from an EU institution.

Pegasus is a powerful surveillance tool sold to government agencies to fight terrorism and other serious crimes. But investigations have been turning up evidence that in many places it is being used to target domestic critics and rivals.

An investigation by a global media consortium published in July showed that Pegasus was used in Hungary to infiltrate the digital devices of a range of targets – including at least 10 lawyers, one opposition politician and several government-critical journalists.

In late December, The Associated Press reported that three Polish critics of the government were also hacked, based on investigations by the Citizen Lab, a research institute at the University of Toronto. Last week ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland's most powerful politician, acknowledged that the country had the spyware but denied it was used against the opposition.

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Among the Polish victims are a lawyer, a prosecutor and a senator who was hacked multiple times in 2019 when he was running the opposition's parliamentary election campaign. Text messages stolen from Senator Krzysztof Brejza's phone were doctored and aired by state-controlled TV in Poland as part of a smear campaign in the heat of the race, which the populist ruling party went on to narrowly win.

The hacking revelations have rocked Poland, drawing comparisons to the 1970s Watergate scandal in the United States.

However, Kaczynski and other top members of the ruling Law and Justice party say they see no reason for an investigation into the hacking. The party can block a probe thanks to its majority in the lower house, or Sejm.

The Senate, where the opposition holds a slim majority, voted 52-45 on Wednesday to launch its committee. One of its aims will be to determine whether the hacking of Brejza's phone altered the outcome of the 2019 elections. The head of committee, Sen. Bosacki, said a state in which secret services have an influence on the election process ceases to be a democracy.

Only the Sejm, whose roles include supervising the government, can launch an inquiry with full investigative powers, including calling witnesses. The Senate can invite witnesses but not require them to appear. Law and Justice senators refused to accept the seats it was offered on the committee.

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Security researchers said Thursday they found two kinds of commercial spyware on the phone of a leading exiled Egyptian dissident, providing new evidence of the depth and diversity of the abusive hacker-for-hire industry.

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One piece of malware recently found on an iPhone belonging to Ayman Nour, a dissident and 2005 Egyptian presidential candidate who subsequently spent three years in jail, originated with the increasingly embattled NSO Group of Israel. That company was recently blacklisted by Washington. The other was from a company called Cytrox, which also has Israeli ties. This was the first documentation of a hack by Cytrox, a little-known NSO Group rival.

The spyware was uncovered by digital sleuths at the University of Toronto's Citizen Lab, who said two different governments hired the competing mercenaries to hack Nour's phone. Both instances of malware were simultaneously active on the phone, investigators said after examining its logs. The researchers said they traced the Cytrox hack to Egypt but didn't know who was behind the NSO Group infection.

The researchers said in a report that the intrusions highlight how "hacking civil society transcends any specific mercenary spyware company."

In detailing the Cytrox infection, the researchers said they found the phone of a second Egyptian exile, who asked not to be identified, also hacked with Cytrox's Predator malware. But the bigger discovery, in a joint probe with Facebook, was that Cytrox has customers in countries beyond Egypt including Armenia, Greece, Indonesia, Madagascar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia.

Facebook's owner, Meta, announced on Thursday a flurry of takedowns of accounts affiliated with seven surveillance-for-hire firms – including Cytrox – and notified about 50,000 people in more than 100 countries including journalists, dissidents and clergy who may have been targeted by them. It said it deleted about 300 Facebook and Instagram accounts linked to Cytrox, which appears to operate out of North Macedonia.

Cytrox's last known CEO, Ivo Malinkovski, could not be located for comment. He scrubbed his LinkedIn page earlier this month to remove mention of his Cytrox affiliation – though a coffee mug with the company name was in his profile photo. The business intelligence website Crunchbase says Cytrox was founded in a Tel Aviv suburb in 2017.

Citizen Lab researcher Bill Marzak said investigators found the malware on Nour's iPhone after it was "running hot" in June. He said the Cytrox malware appears to pull the same tricks as NSO Group's Pegasus product – in particular, turning a smartphone into an eavesdropping device and siphoning out its vital data. One captured module records all sides of a live conversation, he said.

Nour said in an interview from Turkey that he was not surprised by the discovery, as he's sure he has been under Egyptian surveillance for years. Nour said he suspected Egyptian military intelligence in the Cytrox hack. An Egyptian foreign ministry spokesman did not respond to calls and texts requesting comment.

Cytrox was part of a shadowy alliance of surveillance tech companies known as Intellexa that was formed to compete with NSO Group. Founded in 2019 by a former IDF officer and entrepreneur named Tal Dilian, Intellexa includes companies that have run afoul of authorities in various countries for alleged abuses.

Four executives of one such firm, Nexa Technologies, were charged in France this year for "complicity of torture" in Libya while criminal charges were filed against three company executives for "complicity of torture and enforced disappearance" in Egypt. The company allegedly sold spy tech to Libya in 2007 and to Egypt in 2014.

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On its website, Intellexa describes itself as "EU-based and regulated, with six sites and R&D labs throughout Europe," but lists no address. Its web page is vague about its offerings, although as recently as October it said that in addition to "covert mass collection" it provides systems "to access target devices and networks" via Wi-Fi and wireless networks. Intellexa said its tools are used by law enforcement and intelligence agencies against terrorists and crimes including financial fraud.

The Associated Press left messages for Dilian and also tried to reach Intellexa through a form on its website, but received no response.

In addition to his involvement in Intellexa, Dilian ran afoul of authorities in Cyprus in 2019 after showing off a "spy van" there to a Forbes reporter. His company was reportedly fined $1 million as result. He also founded and later sold to NSO Group a company called Circle Technologies, which geolocated cellphones.

The hacker-for-hire industry is facing increased scrutiny as well as regulatory and legal pressure. That includes a call by a group of US lawmakers this week to sanction NSO Group, Nexa and their top executives.

The Biden administration last month added NSO Group and another Israeli firm, Candiru, to a blacklist that bars US companies from providing them with technology. And Apple announced last month that it was suing NSO Group, with the tech giant calling the company's employees "amoral 21st century mercenaries." Facebook sued NSO Group in 2019 for allegedly violating its WhatsApp messenger app.

Earlier this month, the Defense Ministry said it was tightening oversight over cybersecurity exports to prevent abuse.

Citzen Lab researchers, who have been tracking NSO Group exploits since 2015, are skeptical. If NSO Group were to disappear tomorrow, competitors could step in without missing a beat with off-the-shelf replacement spyware, they say.

The firms targeted by Facebook in the takedowns announced Thursday included four Israeli companies: Cobwebs, Cognyte, Black Cube, and Bluehawk CI, as well India-based BellTroX and an unknown organization in China. They provide a variety of different kinds of surveillance activity, ranging from simple intelligence collection through fake accounts to wholesale intrusion.

Nour urged international action against hacker-for-hire firms, "whether it comes from Israel or anywhere else. In the end, the biggest problem is those who use these digital monsters to eat and kill innocent people." That includes nonviolent activists and journalists including Nour's late friend, Jamal Khashoggi.

The Saudi journalist was slain in 2018 at his country's Istanbul consulate and is also believed to have been targeted by phone-surveillance software.

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