Posted on 07/22/21
| News Source: i24
Company CEO Shalev Hulio welcomes the opportunity to 'clear our name'
Israel has established a commission to review allegations that NSO Group's controversial Pegasus phone surveillance software was misused, the head of the parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Ram Ben Barak told Army Radio Thursday.
Pegasus has been implicated in possible targeted surveillance of journalists, human rights defenders and 14 heads of state.
NSO has denied the allegations against it, with its chief executive Shalev Hulio telling Army Radio Thursday that he would "be very pleased if there were an investigation, so that we'd be able to clear our name".
He also alleged there was an effort "to smear all the Israeli cyber industry".
In a speech at Tel Aviv University Wednesday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett extolled the capabilities of Israel’s cyber industry, calling for the establishment of a joint networked cyber defense system for like minded countries.
NSO’s Hulio said the company could not disclose the details of its customers due to "issues of confidentiality," but said he would offer full transparency to any government seeking more details.
"Let any state entity come along -- any official from any state -- and I'll be prepared to open everything up to them, for them to enter, to dig around from top to bottom," he said.
Pegasus can hack into mobile phones without a user knowing, enabling clients to read every message, track a user's location and tap into the phone's camera and microphone.