It seems like every other day there’s a new shocking story about the shadowy company NSO Group and its notorious hacking tool, Pegasus — which has been used by authoritarian governments to spy on the phones of activists, politicians, and dozens of journalists around the world.
Every new story is a stark reminder to support not only the journalists reporting the facts, but also the brave whistleblowers who bring them to light.
This week, the Guardian and Washington Post reported on a new whistleblower coming forward, who alleged NSO Group offered “bags of cash” in exchange for access to U.S. telephone networks, so it could more easily spy on its clients’ targets. From the Post:
The surveillance company NSO Group offered to give representatives of an American mobile-security firm “bags of cash” in exchange for access to global cellular networks, according to a whistleblower who has described the encounter in confidential disclosures to the Justice Department that have been reviewed by The Washington Post.
NSO Group (sort of) denied the charge in a somewhat bizarre statement, saying its co-founder “has no recollection of using the phrase ‘bags of cash’, and believes he did not do so. However if those words were used they will have been entirely in jest.” The Post also revealed the Justice Department has a criminal investigation open against NSO Group.
Last week, a long New York Times investigative piece revealed that the FBI had bought a license to NSO’s hacking tool well ...
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