Israel defence panel to scan more spyware companies

Israel seems to be widening the ambit of its audit of surveillance software exports beyond NSO Group, days after defence authorities raided some offices of the Herzliyaheadquartered company whose Pegasus spyware was allegedly used by governments to snoop on politicians, journalists and others in various countries, including India.
The Haaretz newspaper reported on Tuesday that the country’s top defence committee would convene for a special session on “offensive cyberarms” against the backdrop of the global backlash over snooping through spyware and a lengthening list of potential targets, the latest being prominent British human rights lawyer David Lawrence Haigh. According to the report, a “closed session” of the foreign affairs and defence committee on August 9 had been convened to discuss not just the Pegasus case but also the functioning of other Israeli firms like Candiru and Quadream, both of which have been accused of selling their spyware to so-called non-democratic regimes. The paper said minutes of the session would be kept off the record, although lawmaker Ram Ben Barak, who chairs the panel, denied any such meeting had even been planned. The classified intelligence subcommittee is a panel comprising three more lawmakers other than Barak, a former deputy head of the national intelligence agency Mossad.
The buzz about the Israeli defence establishment taking a long, hard look at a clutch of spyware exporters grew stronger after an Amnesty International forensic analysis purportedly revealed on Monday that rights lawyer Haigh’s phone might have been infiltrated with Pegasus. It was also claimed that the phones of a UKbased Muslim activist and three others â€" an India legal official and a journalist each from Hungary and Turkey â€" had been targeted.
In France, the Le Monde paper reported that a French intelligence service had confirmed that phones of three journalists in the country either had Pegasus planted in them or were targeted for illegal installation. A multi-country probe by a group of media outlets and non-profit organisations suggests that a phone used by President Macron was among the potential targets of Moroccan intel services, Haaretz reported. It quoted a media report in France as saying that the French government had asked Israel to ban the use of the Pegasus in its territory.

Share this post