NSO Group , the company that develops the Pegasus surveillance software, has a very difficult road ahead. The US Department of Commerce has added NSO to a blacklist of companies, which effectively prohibits all commercial transactions.
The move prohibits US companies from doing business with the NSO unless expressly permitted. But this is unlikely, since the same law does not allow exceptions.
The NSO and the Israeli company Candiru (also blacklisted) are facing charges for allowing and facilitating espionage by authoritarian governments.
It is alleged that they provided surveillance software like NSO's Pegasus to "authoritarian governments" who used it to monitor activists, journalists and other critics in an attempt to crush any political dissent.
The latest round of trade bans announced by the ministry also affects Russian company Positive Technologies and Singapore-based Computer Security Initiative Consultancy, which have been accused of trading hacking tools.
The Commerce Department claims to have evidence of NSO's actions, which doesn't bode well for the company's future. Remember what happened to Huawei , which is also on the blacklist. The company may not have been shut down, but it's struggling to operate without the support of the American market.
An NSO spokesperson told Engadget that the company is “disappointed” by the decision and claimed that its tools have helped the US “prevent terrorism and crime.” NSO said it would seek to overturn the ban and reiterated that it complies with the “strictest” human rights standards in the world.
George is still wondering what he is doing here….
