22 August 2022; MEMO: The CEO of the Israeli spyware firm NSO Group and one of its founders, Shalev Hulio, has resigned from his position and will be responsible for searching for a buyer for the company. NSO also informed 100 employees that they would be dismissed. The company's COO Yaron Shohat will take over from Hulio until a successor is named, according to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.
The company is facing a crisis after being listed by the US Department of Commerce as a company that harms US national security. NSO was blacklisted after authoritarian regimes used the Pegasus spyware programme it developed to prosecute human rights activists, journalists and politicians in many countries, by hacking their smartphones, controlling them and spying on their owners. The company was linked to the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi intelligence, at the direct order of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. In the same context, Meta – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp, has filed a lawsuit against it in the US.
Yesterday, NSO officials accused the Israeli Ministry of Security of causing the situation it is in after the ministry-imposed restrictions on Israeli cyber spyware companies following pressure from the US, according to the newspaper.
Among the restrictions imposed is the freezing of their licences to export their programmes to dozens of countries. As a result, companies declared bankruptcy, while others sold their shares. NSO officials said that the Ministry of Defence has become afraid due to the US and "if the situation continues unresolved, there will be no cyber companies left to collect intelligence information in Israel."
