WASHINGTON (Dispatches) – U.S. authorities on Wednesday put the Zionist maker of the Pegasus spyware on the list of restricted companies, after determining the firm supplied software used to target officials and journalists.
The company, NSO, was engulfed in controversy over reports that tens of thousands of human rights activists, journalists, politicians and business executives worldwide were listed as potential targets of its Pegasus software.
Smartphones infected with Pegasus are essentially turned into pocket spying devices, allowing the user to read the target’s messages, look through their photos, track their location and even turn on their camera without them knowing.
“These tools have also enabled foreign governments to conduct transnational repression, which is the practice of authoritarian governments targeting dissidents, journalists and activists outside of their sovereign borders to silence dissent,” the U.S. Commerce Department said in a statement.
Meanwhile, a human rights group told UK MPs on Tuesday that the British government should launch an urgent investigation into the targeting of some 400 British citizens and residents with NSO Group spyware.
The parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee should also coordinate with the 11 countries suspected to have used the Zionist firm’s mobile phone surveillance software to improve spyware regulation, including export controls and checks, Joe Westby, deputy director of Amnesty Tech, told the committee.
“There hasn’t been enough done as a result of the findings. The scale and breadth of the harms that were exposed and across multiple countries really warrant an urgent response,” Westby said.
“We are also calling on UK authorities to conduct an immediate, independent, transparent and impartial investigation of any cases of unlawful surveillance linked to Pegasus spyware, and including where possible providing remedies to victims.”
Westby was one of several experts giving testimony to the Foreign Affairs Committee as part of its inquiry, launched in March, into technology and the future of UK foreign policy.
The aim is to give the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office guidance on how to proceed with its work in the face of new and emerging technologies and powerful private tech companies.