The Biden administration has announced that it blacklisted the Israeli NSO Group in condemnation of the technology company’s budding and distributing of spyware to foreign governments, which are used to maliciously target a range of actors, including journalists and activists.
The US Department of Commerce, in a statement on Wednesday, said the NSO Group was among four firms that have been added to its Entity List of companies deliberated to be engaged in activities contrary to US foreign policy and national security.
Led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, a global investigation was published by 17 media organizations, in which the Pegasus spyware had been used in attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials, and human rights activists.
Saying the reports were “full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories,” the NSO Group rejected the accusations by indicating that Pegasus is intended for use “only by government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to fight terrorism and crime.”
