20th+: NSO - Pegasus

A consortium of news outlets from around the world, including Frontline, has been investigating the use of the spyware called Pegasus and the Israeli company, NSO Group, that sells it to foreign governments. Pegasus has been used by NSO clients to spy on journalists, human rights activists and others. One target: Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancée.

NSO Group Technologies (NSO standing for Niv, Shalev and Omri, the names of the company's founders) is an Israeli technology firm whose spyware called Pegasus enables the remote surveillance of smartphones. Pegasus spyware can be installed on devices running some versions of iOS, Apple's mobile operating system, and Android.

The Israeli cyberarms firm NSO Group was founded in 2010 by Niv Carmi, Omri Lavie, and Shalev Hulio. NSO's founders are ex-members of Unit 8200, the Israeli Intelligence Corps unit responsible for collecting signals intelligence. The company's start-up funding came from a group of investors headed by Eddy Shalev, a partner in venture capital fund Genesis Partners. The group invested a total of $1.8 million for a 30% stake. NSO employed almost 500 people as of 2017, and is based in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, Israel.

NSO claims that it provides authorized governments with technology that helps them combat terror and crime. According to several reports, software created by NSO Group was used in targeted attacks against human rights activists and journalists in various countries, was used in state espionage against Pakistan, and played a role in the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Kashoggi by agents of the Saudi government. In October 2019, instant messaging company WhatsApp and its parent company Facebook sued NSO under the US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).

The Pegasus spyware is classified as a weapon by Israel and any export of the technology must be approved by the government.

Annual revenues were around US$40 million in 2013 and $150 million in 2015. In June 2017, the company was put up for sale for $1 billion by Francisco Partners. Founders Lavie and Hulio, partnering with European private equity fund Novalpina Capital, purchased a majority stake in NSO in February 2019.

21-12-16 Facebook has banned seven “surveillance-for-hire” companies from its platforms and will send warning notices to 48,000 people who the company believes were targeted by malicious activity, following a months-long investigation into the “cyber mercenary” industry.

Black Cube, an Israeli company that gained notoriety after it emerged that the disgraced media mogul and convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein had hired them to target women who had accused him of abuse. Black Cube rejected Facebook’s claims about its activities.
Cobwebs, another Israeli company that Facebook said enabled its clients to use public websites and dark web sites to trick targets into revealing personal information. The company also reportedly works for US clients, including a local police department in Hartford, Connecticut.
Cytrox (Predator spyware), a North Macedonian company that Facebook said enabled its clients to infect targets with malware following phishing campaigns. Cytrox is reportedly part of Intellexa, the “Star Alliance” of spyware which was formed to compete with NSO and describes itself on its website as being EU-based and regulated. Intellexa did not respond to a request for comment.
Other entities banned by Facebook include: Cognyte, Bluehawk CI, BellTroX and what was described as an “unknown entity” in China, which it said was responsible for malicious targeting and appears to have been used for domestic law enforcement in China. The malware deployed by the group was used against minority groups in Xinjiang, Myanmar and Hong Kong.

Facebook is facing intense scrutiny in Washington and around the world following accusations by a whistleblower, Frances Haugen, that it enabled the spread of hate speech and disinformation.

This Facebook investigation is significant, however, because it reveals new details about the way parts of the surveillance industry use social media – from Facebook to Instagram – to create fake accounts to deceive their targets and conceal their own activities. While many of the companies claim that they are hired to target criminals and terrorists, Facebook said the industry “regularly” enabled its clients to target journalists, dissidents, critics of authoritarian regimes and human rights activists and their families.

It also pointed to recent and intense media focus on NSO Group, the Israeli spyware maker that was at the heart of the Pegasus Project, an investigation by the Guardian and other media outlets, and was recently blacklisted by the Biden administration. WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook’s parent company, Meta, sued NSO in 2019 and has been a leading critic of the company. NSO is not among the companies banned on Thursday.

As Facebook announced its investigation, leading researchers at Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto released a new report that zeroed in on one entity – Cytrox – whose spyware, called Predator, is alleged to have been used by an unknown client to hack the devices of two individuals.

Unrestricted Warfare (1999, China) ..

⧫ AI, IT, Cyber ..

⧫ Asymmetric Warfare - Geopolitical ..
⧫ Autonomous Robotics, Weaponry ..