Israel 'encouraged' sale of Pegasus spyware to UAE and other Gulf regimes, report finds

The Israeli government put NSO, which makes hundreds of millions of dollars worth of annual revenue from its contracts with Gulf regimes, in contact with governments in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, and the the emirates of Abu Dhabi and Ras Al-Khaimah.

Israeli government representatives even participated in marketing meetings between Arab intelligence officials and NSO staff, some of which were held in Israel, according to intelligence obtained by the newspaper.

The government support has helped make NSO's Gulf arm its most profitable division, with one contract reporetedly signed for $250 million.

Pegasus spyware, which is exclusively sold to state authorities, is known to be used by Gulf and other regimes to hack the mobile phones of dissidents and other opponents. The software can copy the contents of these devices and sometimes even control the camera and audio recording capabilities.

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It is claimed that Pegasus was used to spy on the phone belonging to journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered by a team of Saudi officials in the Istanbul consulate in 2018.

NSO denies these claims, however several employees quit in protest following the allegations.

Despite the company claiming that its spyware is used only against criminals, there is little to no supervision of how it is implemented by government clients. NSO employees have he ability to shut down or control the software remotely, however employees claim that linguistic barriers as well as lack of interest mean they do not monitor the activity of Gulf governments.