Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron has held a national security meeting on Thursday morning to discuss the pegasus spyware made by Israel after a report on his use in France this week, said Gabriel Attal government spokesman said.
“The President follows this subject carefully and considers it very seriously,” Attal told France Inter Radio, added that the non-scheduled national security meeting would be “dedicated to Pegasus and Cybersecurity questions”.
NSO: Macron is not targeted by Pegasus Spyware officials at the Israeli Cybersecurity company NSO Group told Wednesday that the controversial pegasus spyware tool company was not used to target French President Emmanuel Macron.
Comments came as an unlimited reporters (RSF) urged Israel to suspend spy technology exports after the head of state – including Macron – and a number of journalists and activists appeared on the target list selected for potential potential.
We can “specifically come out and say sure that the President of France, Macron, is not a target,” Chaim Gelfand, head of Compliance at the NSO Group, told the news channel.
But he also offended “some cases raised that we were not so comfortable with”, noting that in such circumstances companies “usually approach customers and have a long discussion …
to try to understand what is the legitimate reason, if any, to use the system.” Gelfand comments were broadcast on the same day with the Head of the RSF Christophe Deloire called for Israeli Prime Minister Naphtali Bennett “to impose a direct moratorium on the exports of supervision technology, until the protective regulatory framework has been set”.
Deloire’s call comes after a list of leaking from around 50,000 telephone numbers that are believed to have been selected by the NSO Group client.
The number that is said to include Macron people, and 13 other state heads.
Pegasus can hack a cellphone without a user who knows, allows clients to read each message, track the user’s location and utilize the camera and cellphone microphone.
NSO has a contract with 45 countries, and said the Israeli Ministry of Defense must approve the transaction.
The company does not identify its customers.
However, the rights group Amnesty International and Paris-based organization prohibits the stories obtained by the list, said the NSO government clients include Bahrain, India, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda and Saudi Arabia.
Reporting by media outlets including the Guardian, Le Monde and Washington Post found that nearly 200 journalists from the organization including AFP were on the list.
“Allows the government to install spyware used in practice to monitor hundreds of journalists and their sources around the world raises the main problem of democracy,” Deloire said.
NSO, Giant Tech Israel, is based in North Herzliya Tel Aviv, and has 850 employees.