New Delhi: NSO Israel Group, which developed controversial Pegasus surveillance software, has offered a “cash bag” to US cellular security companies for access to global cellular signaling networks, allegedly.
It was reported in Washington Post and The Guardian.
The accusation was revealed to the US Federal Authority and members of the US Congress Ted Lieu by Gary Miller, a former security executive at the US company Mobileum.
The US-based cellular security company that develops and sells software to secure what is called the SS7 network.
SS7 is a system that is two decades to track the location of mobile users to route calls and services while roaming internationally.
NSO officials looking for access to the network during conference calls in 2017, Miller accused.
According to him, the co-founder of NSO Omri Lavie (‘O’ in NSO) allegedly said, “We dropped cash in your office”.
Then a vice president in Mobileum, Miller left the company in 2020 and now worked as a security researcher for the Lab Citizen, who had led research on Pegasus and other supervision equipment.
The Guardian also reported that the US Department of Justice (Doj) has opened an active criminal investigation against NSO for unauthorized intrusion into networks and cellular devices.
The authorities have interviewed US citizens that their cellphones were hacked by NSO clients.
Security researchers have found individuals hacked while living outside the US and using non-US cellphone numbers, the report said.
Doj has also interviewed Mexican Journalists Carmen Aristegui, the iPhone was hacked using Pegasus.
Pegasus is the topic of debate in several countries including India, with the opposition claiming that the center employs it to lurk opposition politicians and other individuals.