Pegasus issue: Israel to review allegations of misuse and licensing process

Amid the Pegasus snooping case backlash Israel has established a committee to review the allegations of misuse of the NSO groups surveillance software and hinted at a possible review of the whole matter of giving licencesThe alleged use of the Pegasus software to spy on journalists human rights defenders politicians and others in a number of countries including India triggered concerns over issues relating to privacyPoliticians rights activists and journalists were among those targeted with phone spyware sold to various governments by the Israeli firm according to an international media consortiumldquoThe defence establishment appointed a review committee made up of a number of bodies lawmaker Ram BenBarak the head of Knessetrsquos Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee told Army Radio on ThursdayldquoWhen they finish their review wersquoll demand to see the results and assess whether we need to make corrections BenBarak who earlier was the former deputy head of Israelrsquos Mossad spy agency addedIsraelrsquos priority was ldquoto review this whole matter of giving licensesrdquo he stressedNSOs chief executive Shalev Hulio welcomed the move telling Army Radio that he would ldquobe very pleased if there were an investigation so that wersquod be able to clear our namerdquoHulio claimed that there was an effort ldquoto smear the whole Israeli cyber industryBenBarak noted that Pegasus had helped ldquoexpose many terror cellsrdquo but ldquoif it was misused or sold to irresponsible bodies this is something we need to checkThe NSO head also told Army Radio that his company could not disclose the details of its contracts due to ldquoissues of confidentialityrdquo but said he would offer full transparency to any government seeking more detailsldquoLet any state entity come along mdash any official from any state mdash and Irsquoll be prepared to open everything up to them for them to enter to dig around from top to bottomrdquo Hulio assertedNSO in a written response to PTI in October 2019 when the issue first came to the limelight with reports of misuse in India had said that it considers any other use of our products than to prevent serious crime and terrorism a misuse which is contractually prohibitedWe take action if we detect any misuse This technology is rooted in the protection of human rights ndash including the right to life security and bodily integrity ndash and thatrsquos why we have sought alignment with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights to make sure our products are respecting all fundamental human rightsrdquo it said which is a stand its executives still maintainWithout confirming or denying if the software was sold to India the company had said that its products are licensed to government intelligence and law enforcement agencies for the sole purpose of preventing and investigating terror and serious crimeTo protect the ongoing public safety missions of its agency customers and given significant legal and contractual constraints NSO Group is not able to disclose who is or is not a client or discuss specific uses of its technology the written statement had saidIsraels defence ministry in a statement earlier on Monday threatened that if it finds that the NSO Group violated the terms of its export licenses it will ldquotake appropriate actionrdquoThe ministry said that Israel only permits companies to export cybersecurity products to ldquogovernment figures only for legal purposes and to prevent and investigate crimes and to combat terrorism And this is dependent upon commitments regarding the end useuser from the purchasing country which must abide by these conditionsrdquoThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever