Jerusalem: Israel has launched the probe on charges of mistakes against the NSO group in the Pegasus scandal lurking, with the authorities examining Cybersecurity company offices for alleged spyware violations by several government clients who have raised eyebrows throughout the world.
Representatives from several bodies visited the NSO office to assess the allegations raised in connection with the company on Wednesday, the spokesman for the Israeli defense ministry said.
When asked to share details, he said that “we did not describe at this time”.
Local media reports say that the body that conducts inspection is the export control division of the Ministry of Defense and the National Security Council, which is also authorized to investigate if necessary.
The focus of the investigation is to test whether the company acts in accordance with the permits and power given to IT by the Ministry of Defense’s export control division, the report said.
Alleged use of Pegasus software to spy on journalists, defenders of human rights, politicians and others in a number of countries, including India, triggered concerns about problems related to privacy.
Politicians, activists of rights and journalists are among those targeted by telephone spyware sold to various governments by Israeli companies, according to the International Media Consortium.
In the middle of the reports of spyware use against French President Emmanuel Macron, Israeli defense minister, Benny Gantz, visited Paris on Wednesday and convinced his French partner, Florence Parly that Jerusalem took a “serious” problem.
“Minister Gantz discussed the topic of NSO and stated that Israel seriously.
He noted that the Israeli state approved the export of cyber products exclusively for government entities, for legitimate use and to investigate crime and counter-terrorism,” said a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Minister , “He also told the Minister of Parly that officials visit the NSO office (Wednesday) and Israel was investigating the allegations thoroughly”, he said.
Israel last week established a committee to review the allegations of the abuse of the NSO Group supervision software and signaled the possibility of “overall review of licensing”.
“The defense formation refers to a review committee consisting of a number of bodies,” said Ben-Barak RAM lawmaker, Head of the Foreign Committee and Defense Knesset, has announced without sharing more details.
“When they complete their reviews, we will demand the results and assess whether we need to make a correction,” Ben-barracks, who were formerly the Deputy Head of the Mossad Israeli spy agency, added.
Israel’s priority is “to review this whole thing to give a license”, he then emphasizes.
The head of the NSO executive, Shalev Hulio, has been welcomed by moving in an interview with the Army radio who said that he would be “very happy if there was an investigation so we could clear our name”.
Hulio claims that there is an effort “to smear the entire Israeli cyber industry”.