WASHINGTON – US defence company L3Harris Technologies is in the middle of negotiations to possibly acquire Israeli cyber firm NSO Group’s controversial Pegasus spyware, reported Sputnik.
According to a report by The Washington Post today, citing sources, L3Harris declined to confirm that a deal to acquire the Pegasus spyware is in the works.
There are still a number of details to determine in the deal, such as the price and where the spyware will be housed, the report added.
A White House official told The Washington Post, which reported jointly on the story with The Guardian and Haaretz, that the Biden administration is deeply concerned about the potential deal because of serious counterintelligence and security risks it poses for the US government. If the deal goes through, the US government will put it through an extensive review process to examine the threat it may pose to the United States, the report added.
Pegasus has purportedly been used to spy on the phones of about 50,000 targets, including politicians, businessmen, activists, journalists and opposition figures around the world.
The United States placed the NSO Group on its export blacklist in November after it determined the software had been used by foreign governments with malicious intent against government officials, journalists, activists, and diplomatic staff around the world, among others.
The US National Security Council, according to the US official, is looking to develop a ban on US government purchase or use of foreign commercial spyware that may present a security risk to the United States or that has been used inappropriately overseas.
According to Canadian cybersecurity firm Citizen Lab, the United Arab Emirates purportedly used Israeli Pegasus spyware to hack the British Prime Minister’s Office network in 2020 and 2021. Several official networks in the United Kingdom were infected with the Pegasus spyware, with the main victims of the attack being 10 Downing Street and the UK Foreign Office.
In January, Israeli newspaper Calcalist published an article alleging that Israeli police used Pegasus, designed to spy on terrorists and criminals, to remotely access, control, and extract information from mobile phones of citizens who were not suspected of crimes, including civil servants and opposition figures. Israeli police chief Yaakov “Kobi” Shabtai addressed the government with a request to create a state commission to investigate the violations. – Bernama, June 15, 2022
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