Amnesty Wants Israeli Espionage Software Company’s License Revoked

Date: 14 January 2020 - 21:57

News ID: ۷۵۰۷۰

WEST BANK (Dispatches) – Amnesty International will ask a Zionist regime’s court on Thursday to order the occupying regime’s authorities to revoke the export license of NSO Group, whose software has been used by the regime to spy on journalists and dissidents.
Amnesty said on Tuesday that Zionist war minister last week petitioned the Tel Aviv District Court to dismiss the lawsuit, or if it proceeds to restrict reporting on national security grounds.
In a statement, the ministry did not comment directly on whether it had sought a dismissal or gag order but said its supervision of military exports was "subject to constant scrutiny and periodic assessments”.
The ministry added that it does not comment on specific licenses.
In Amnesty’s case, brought by members and supporters of its office in the occupied territories, the organization said NSO continues to profit from its spyware being used to commit abuses against activists across the world and the Zionist regime has "stood by and watched it happen.”
"The best way to stop NSO’s powerful spyware products reaching repressive governments is to revoke the company’s export license, and that is exactly what this legal case seeks to do,” said Danna Ingleton, deputy director of Amnesty Tech.
The spyware company targeted smart phones of at least two dozen senior Pakistani officials earlier this year, amid speculations that Tel Aviv has been playing a role in an escalation of conflict between nuclear-armed rivals, India and Pakistan.
Citing sources familiar with the matter, the Guardian reported in December that NSO Group hacked mobile phones of Pakistani officials, including top military and intelligence officials.
The technology, according to the report, is said to have taken advantage of security vulnerability in the WhatsApp messaging application.
The report did not specify who wanted to target the Pakistani officials, though it said that the details "are likely to fuel speculation that India could have been using NSO technology for domestic and international surveillance.”
Facebook Inc on Tuesday also sued NSO Group in October, alleging it hacked users of its messaging platform WhatsApp earlier this year.
The hacking spree targeted journalists, diplomats, human rights activists, political dissidents, senior government officials and others, Facebook said in its lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
Facebook-owned WhatsApp, which is also a plaintiff in the lawsuit, said in a statement that it believed the attack "targeted at least 100 members of civil society, which is an unmistakable pattern of abuse.”