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NSO Group has been besieged by accusations of criticism and harassment for years. United Arab Emirates in 2016, caught It targets human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor by using Pegasus, a tool by NSO Group that exploits software flaws to hack iPhones and transfer control to NSO Group’s customers. In this case, the UAE government was seen as guilty and the NSO walked away unscathed (Mansur is still prison on charges of criticizing the country’s regime).
The repeated pattern for years was that governments would be accused of using NSO hacking tools against dissidents, but the company denied wrongdoing and escaped punishment. Then, in mid-2021, new reports emerged of allegations of misconduct against Western governments. company approved by the US in November and December Reuters reported It turned out that US State Department officials were hacked using Pegasus.
Now NSO Group is facing expensive public lawsuits from Facebook and Apple. He has to deal with debt, low morale and fundamental threats to his future. Suddenly, the poster child for spyware to face an existential crisis.
All this is familiar territory. Hire hacker industry leaps into international newspapers for the first time headlines In 2014, the Italian firm Hacking Team was accused of selling “untraceable” spyware to dozens of unauthorized countries. respect for violations of human rights or privacy.
Hacking Team has opened the eyes of the world to a global industry that buys and sells powerful tools to hack into computers everywhere. At the end of the resulting storm of scandal kill he. The company lost its business and the ability to legally sell its vehicles internationally. Hacking Team was sold and left to die in the minds of the public. Eventually, however, it was rebranded and started sell the same products. But this time it was a smaller fish in a much larger pond.
“The demise of Hacking Team did not drastically change the industry,” says James Shires, assistant professor at Leiden University’s Institute for Security and Global Affairs. “The same dynamic and demand is still there.”
The industry’s first customers were a small group of countries eager to project power around the world through the internet. The situation is much more complex today. Many countries now pay for the ability to instantly hack enemies both internationally and within their borders. Billions of dollars are involved, but there is little transparency and even less accountability.
As public scrutiny of firms providing hired hacks has increased, so has the global demand for offensive cyber capabilities. In the 21st century, a government’s most valuable goals are online more than ever before, and hacking is often the most effective way to achieve them.
The result is a growing crowd of countries willing to spend huge sums on developing sophisticated hacking operations.
For governments, investing in cyberspace is a relatively inexpensive and effective way to compete with rival countries and develop powerful internal control tools.
“There have been more and more countries developing cyber capabilities, especially in the last five years,” says Saher Naumaan, chief threat intelligence analyst at BAE Systems.
And many of these countries are seeking outside help. “If you don’t have a way to leverage the skills or talents of people in your country, but you have the resources to outsource, why not go commercial?” says. “This is an option in many different industries. That way, cyber isn’t all that different. You’re paying for something you wouldn’t build yourself.”
For example, oil-rich countries in the Persian Gulf have historically lacked the significant technical capacity needed to develop local hacking power. So they spend it on a shortcut. “They don’t want to be left behind,” says Naumaan.
Military contracting giants around the world are now developing and selling these capabilities. These tools were used for the horrific abuse of power. They are also increasingly used in legitimate criminal investigations and counter-terrorism, and are becoming key to espionage and military operations.
The demand for products sold by private hacking companies is unending. “The industry is both larger and more visible today than it was a decade ago,” says Winnona DeSombre, security researcher and member of the Atlantic Council. “Demand is increasing because the world is becoming more technologically connected.”
DeSombre recently mapped Famous opaque industry charting hundreds of companies selling digital surveillance tools worldwide. He argues that much of the industry’s growth has been hidden from the public, including by Western companies selling cyberweapon and surveillance technology to geopolitical rivals.
“The biggest problem comes when this space is primarily self-regulating,” he said. Self-regulation can lead to “widespread human rights abuses” and even friendly fire when hacking tools are sold to foreign governments returning and using the same capabilities against the country of origin.
Drawing attention to the increasing influence of the sector, authorities around the world now aim to shape its future with sanctions, indictments and new regulations regarding exports. Despite this, the demand for vehicles is increasing.
As a result, the most meaningful change can come when there is an impact on companies’ revenues. Recent reports, NSO Group’s debt and don’t fight Taking Wall Street investment to court.
“It’s a commercial industry, after all,” says Shires. “If VC firms and large institutional investors see this as a risky bet, they will choose to withdraw. More than anything else, this could revolutionize the industry.”
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