Qatar and BDS under lens as NSO stands clear on their usage of spyware tool

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 07:56 am

This dates back to when three young entrepreneurs wanted to disrupt the technology industry with their breakthrough ideas. On an interesting turn, they were approached by law enforcement officials with an unexpected request. They asked these entrepreneurs to build software for them in the Israeli technology space, which can troubleshoot their customers’ smartphones by sending them an SMS link that enabled the carrier to access the phone remotely. It could be used for saving the lives of people.

Traditional methods of wiretapping calls were becoming obsolete in the age of the smartphone, the officers explained, because early encryption software blocked their ability to read and listen to the conversations of terrorists, paedophiles and other criminals.

In the recent turn of events, the CEO of NSO Shalev Hulio has made a statement that Qatar and BDS are behind the media campaign targeting the Pegasus project. On one hand, analysts say that NSO was too eager to make friends in a hostile region and too willing to take controversial actions in the name of survival, as well as the limitations of technology companies’ abilities to control the abuse of their products by their customers.

But on the other hand, as soon as Hulio acknowledged that some of NSO’s government customers had misused its software in the past, their company shut off five clients’ access under human rights violations.

About Pegasus Project:

Pegasus Project started as a blend of nonprofit and media organizations, this tool by NSO is aimed at shedding light on the activities of people to track their movement and gather the information that can be used to save millions of citizens.

However, now NSO is coming into the limelight to say that the government of Qatar and BDS have misused the software to hack phones and laptops of civil rights defenders, reporters, journalists, and lawyers to interfere in their personal space. BDS stands for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. It is a Palestinian-led movement that encourages boycotts, divestments, and economic sanctions against Israel.

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Being under the lens, Hulio says, it’s either Qatar or BDS, which is speculating the Gulf state and blaming them to be involved in the unlawful activities which would further discredit NSO. He adds by saying that their company has got nothing to be afraid of since they are not criminals.

However, officials and BDS needs to be careful with their words and actions as given the work history of NSO, they have caught serious and dangerous criminals, terrorists, gangsters and paedophiles with spyware tools.

Since the last few days, Israeli political leaders have started to argue that the export controls rules that govern cyber technology companies might have become too prone to political influence. 

Although steering through the allegation, the company shows data that the compromised information, hacks of 37 specific devices, was none of the phones had been targeted by NSO software.