The New York Times Magazine reports that the NSO Group repeatedly tried to sell the FBI its Pegasus spyware.
Israel-based NSO has developed a powerful cyberweapon that enables the hacking of any phone in the United States. And the Cyberware company contacted a myriad of US government agencies between 2019 and last summer to sell them the software.
The FBI, the DEA, the Secret Service, and the parts of the U.S. military all held discussions with NSO. In the meantime, state intelligence agencies around the world purchased the spyware.
NSO held demonstrations in Washington of its “Phantom” surveillance tool. And revealed how easy it was to access all the data stored on a phone.
The latest upgrade to Pegasus spyware works on US phones. And pulls every text, every email, every photo, and all personal contacts from a person’s phone. Pegasus was able to track the infected phone’s location. And could take control of its camera and microphone.
The Times claimed that the app could “almost instantly transform phones around the world into powerful surveillance tools — everywhere except in the United States.”
