Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid distanced the Israeli Government from the NSO Group, a company sanctioned by the United States this week on charges of spying on activists and journalists, ”Reuters” reports.
The NSO has been widely criticized for reports that its spyware product Pegasus has been misused by governments to spy on dissidents, journalists, human rights workers and possibly even heads of state. Pegasus is able to sneak into a target's mobile phone, giving users access to data, email, contacts and even their cameras and microphones.
Yair lapid said at a press conference in Jerusalem that ”NSO is a privite company, it is not a governement project and therefore even though it was appointed, it has nothing to do with the policies of the Israeli Government”.
”I don't think there is another country in the world tahat has such strict rules under cyber warfare and that enforces those rules more than Israel and we will continue to do so”, also said Lapid.
The U.S. added, on Wednesday, the NSO Group to the Entity List for engaging in activities that are contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.
The Israeli Foreign minister says the NSO Group is unrelated to the Government
