The Israeli cyber company NSO continues to make headlines, after the storm in Israel around the company seems to have subsided a bit, now two Republican lawmakers are pressuring Apple and the FBI to provide information about the company’s spyware, according to a report on the American network CNBC.
Letters published by the network, signed by House Judiciary Committee member Jim Jordan and Civil Rights Subcommittee member Mike Johnson, state that “the commission is examining the FBI’s acquisition, testing and use of NSO spyware. And potential repercussions on American citizens’ civil liberties. ” This is after the New York Times reported earlier this year that the FBI had purchased surveillance technology from the NSO Group.
Last year, a media group investigation revealed that NSO’s software was used to hack into the phones of journalists and political activists. Although the company denied the findings to NSO, a few months after the investigation was published, the Biden administration blacklisted the company, saying the company knowingly provided its technology to foreign governments that used it to “maliciously hack” the phones of opponents, activists and journalists.
According to the technology it has developed, using Pegasus software, it is possible to hack into phones with Apple and Android operating systems and access messages in encrypted applications, all without requiring the victim to click on any link. The Vice News network first reported that the NSO group offered U.S. law enforcement agencies a similar-style tool called the Phantom, when according to the Times the Israeli government granted a special license that allows software to hack into American phones, an unmistakable capability that was limited to U.S. government agencies “B who are allowed to buy the tool. The company reportedly sampled the tool to the FBI. The FBI bought and tested the Pegasus technology, according to the Times, and it was easy to start using it but salted his mind.
In their letter to the FBI Director, Christopher Ray, Jordan and Johnson wrote that they find the purchase of the spyware, “very disturbing and poses significant risks to the civil liberties of people in the United States. The letter asks the FBI to transfer communications between the agency and the NSO group or its subsidiaries regarding the agency’s acquisition, testing or use of NSO spyware and the potential legality of using a phantom against local targets.
In their letter to Apple, members of the House of Representatives asked CEO Tim Cook to provide details about Apple’s ability to detect software running on iPhones. Of the company with government agencies regarding the spyware.
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