Talks are said to be underway for the takeover of NSO Group, the company behind the sulphurous Pegasus spyware. The acquirer, L3Harris, is a US defense industry company. With the media Ha’aretz, Guardian and washington postthe White House expressed its concerns on June 14.
The United States does not appreciate NSO masses
It was the affair of the summer of 2021. Several media revealed that an Israeli company, NSO Group, had widely sold, including to disreputable regimes, an extremely sophisticated hacking tool, Pegasus. It was used to spy on journalists, human rights activists, senior officials, politicians and lawyers…
According Intelligence Online, NSO Group reportedly caught the eye of L3Harris. The Florida-based company is known for selling equipment to the US military and surveillance systems for authorities. She would be mainly interested in the core technology and some of the personnel of the Israeli company.
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This is a great opportunity, marked by last year’s scandal, NSO is crippled with debt, there are fewer customers and its investor, Novalpina Capital, is troubled by internal conflicts. On the other hand, its technology remains at the forefront of what is being done in the field.
However, these discussions could quickly find themselves facing one or even several walls. First, in retaliation for spying via Pegasus on several US citizens, including State Department officials, NSO was blacklisted by the Biden administration in November 2021.
A senior White House official told the Guardian that the government opposes efforts by foreign companies to circumvent U.S. export controls or sanctions, including placement on the U.S. Commerce Department’s Entity List for malicious cyberactivists “.
The United States could very well object to this acquisition, but even if it were to take place, it “ would not automatically remove a designated entity from the list of entities and would result in a thorough review “. The creation of a new entity is envisaged.
Will Pegasus cross the Atlantic?
It is not only human rights that arouses American hostility, but also the risks of espionage by a defense company. The issue of hosting NSO technologies is still pending. Will it be kept in Israel?
This condition could be set by Jerusalem to accept the deal. Given the nature of NSO’s work, the Israeli government has control over the countries to which products like Pegasus were offered. This earned him to be splashed in 2021 by the scandal, but leaves him the possibility of refusing that the company be resold.
According to information from Ha’aretzfrom Guardian and washington postNSO’s technology under the L3Harris banner would be aimed at the countries of the Five Eyes, the information-sharing agreement between the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and a few NATO governments.