Israel Admits Exporting Software Used to Spy on Journalists and Activists

photo: the quint

Tel Aviv, MINA- The Israeli occupation has authorized the export of the “Pegasus” spyware, which was developed by an Israeli company to spy on journalists and activists on a global scale.

This came in statements by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, in response to a question by Meretz Party Chairman Nitzan Horowitz, about the exports of spyware developed by the Israeli company NSO and which media reports linked to hacking the phones of journalists, civil servants and human rights activists in all parts of the world.

“(Israel) allows the export of security means to democracies to use them legally and for the purpose of investigating crimes and terrorism. We are currently studying the published information on this matter,” Gantz said in statements reported by the Hebrew Ynet website.

In response to this, the “NSO” group rejected the information reported by the media, describing it as “unconfirmed assumptions”, while questioning the credibility of the investigation sources.

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And the British newspaper “The Guardian” published, earlier, the results of an investigation conducted by 17 media organizations, that the Israeli “Pegasus” spy program had spread widely around the world and was used for bad purposes.

The investigation indicated that the governments of at least 10 countries are among the clients of the Israeli “NSO” company, most notably the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Azerbaijan, Rwanda, Hungary, and India.

Pegasus is used to eavesdrop on human rights activists, monitor emails, take pictures and record conversations, after their phones are hacked.

NSO was established in 2010, employs about 500 employees, and is headquartered in Tel Aviv. (T/RE1)

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Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)