4 ms·

Pretty sure this was known since last year[0], although it may be slightly different. The smaller firms are just alphabet soup remixes of the larger ones. I wo

• mzs 5y ago
  Nice find, maybe there's something here to how KSA was allowed to continue spying using this tech: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/magazine/nso-group-israel-spyware.html https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/28/magazine/nso-group-israel... > Years prior, NSO had formed an ethics committee, made up of a bipartisan cast of former U.S. foreign-policy officials who would advise on potential customers. After the Khashoggi killing in 2018, its members requested an urgent meeting to address the stories circulating about NSO involvement. Hulio flatly denied that Pegasus had been used to spy on the Washington Post columnist. Pegasus systems log every attack in case there is a complaint, and — with the client’s permission — NSO can perform an after-the-fact forensic analysis. Hulio said his staff had done just that with the Saudi logs and found no use of any NSO product or technology against Khashoggi. The committee nonetheless urged NSO to shut off the Pegasus system in Saudi Arabia, and it did. The committee also advised NSO to reject a subsequent request by the Israeli government to reconnect the hacking system in Saudi Arabia, and it stayed off. > Then, the following year, the company reversed course. Novalpina, a British private-equity firm, acting in cooperation with Hulio, purchased Francisco Partners’ shares of NSO, with a valuation of $1 billion — more than five times more than it was when the American fund acquired it in 2014. In early 2019, NSO agreed to turn the Pegasus system in Saudi Arabia back on. > Keeping the Saudis happy was important for Netanyahu, who was in the middle of a secret diplomatic initiative he believed would cement his legacy as a statesman — an official rapprochement between Israel and several Arab states. In September 2020, Netanyahu, Donald Trump and the foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed the Abraham Accords, and all the signatories heralded it as a new era of peace for the region. > But behind the scenes of the peace deal was a Middle East weapons bazaar. The Trump administration had quietly agreed to overturn past American policy and sell F-35 joint strike fighters and armed Reaper drones to the U.A.E., and had spent weeks assuaging Israel’s concerns that it would no longer be the only country in the region with the sophisticated F-35. Pompeo would later describe the aircraft deals in an interview as “critical” to obtaining M.B.Z.’s consent to the historic move. And by the time the Abraham Accords were announced, Israel had provided licenses to sell Pegasus to nearly all the signatories. > Things hit a snag a month later, when the Saudi export license expired. Now it was up to the Israeli Defense Ministry to decide whether or not to renew it. Citing Saudi Arabia’s abuse of Pegasus, it declined to do so. Without the license, NSO could not provide routine maintenance on the software, and the systems were crashing. Numerous calls among Prince Mohammed’s aides, NSO executives, the Mossad and the Israeli Defense Ministry had failed to resolve the issue. So the crown prince placed an urgent telephone call to Netanyahu, according to people familiar with the call. He wanted the Saudi license for Pegasus renewed. > Prince Mohammed had a significant amount of leverage. His ailing father, King Salman, had not officially signed on to the Abraham Accords, but he offered the other signatories his tacit blessing. He also allowed for a crucial part of the agreement to move forward: the use of Saudi air space, for the first time ever, by Israeli planes flying eastward on their way to the Persian Gulf. If the Saudis were to change their mind about the use of their airspace, an important public component of the accords might collapse. > Netanyahu apparently had not been updated on the brewing crisis, but after the conversation with Prince Mohammed his office immediately ordered the Defense Ministry to have the problem fixed. That night, a ministry official called NSO’s operations room to have the Saudi systems switched back on, but the NSO compliance officer on duty rebuffed the request without a signed license. Told that the orders came directly from Netanyahu, the NSO employee agreed to accept an email from the Defense Ministry. Shortly afterward, Pegasus in Saudi Arabia was once again up and running. > The next morning, a courier from the Defense Ministry arrived at NSO headquarters delivering a stamped and sealed permit.
  • pomian 5y ago
    Very interesting comment! Ps(what is MBZ?)
    • drc500free 5y ago
      https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/world/middleeast/crown-prince-mohammed-bin-zayed.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/02/world/middleeast/crown-pr...
    • johnyzee 5y ago
      Mohammad Bin Zayed, hereditary ruler of Abu Dhabi (and thus, the United Arab Emirates, which include Dubai).
  • shmatt 5y ago
    This Novalpina thing has been creating a lot of drama in the past few weeks. It turns out 1) The purchase was done as a leveraged purchase, very odd in the Israeli high tech/startup world. maybe even unprecedented. NSO is about to default on said debt 2) Novalpina are now at odds with Hulio, blaming him on trying to move all of the debt to 3 of the companies "healthy" subsidiaries. Apparently NSO is built like a maze, with lots of smaller companies, some of those aren't on the US ban list, and Hulio is trying to move all of the debt to them. The Israeli courts are now in the mix, trying to figure out who owns what Unfortunately I couldn't find an article in english, but here is one in Hebrew with the ability to Google Translate https://www.calcalist.co.il/local_news/article/rksf58atf https://www.calcalist.co.il/local_news/article/rksf58atf
  • DSingularity 5y ago
    Hard not to view these expiration of permits or recommendations of ethical committees as calculated moves to create leverage and to increase valuations. Especially when within 12 months a 5x return on investment is realized followed by an immediate policy reversal or when the Israelis suddenly gain the blessings of the gulf to annex Jerusalem. What a shame on every computer scientist involved and every one who is an expert in this domain and. Is staying silent. You know these efforts don’t work without the involvement of academics and venture capitalists and skilled programmers. And what did they create? A tool that was used to spy on a dissident journalist in order to put together a savage assassination operation. Shame on the Saudis and shame on their Israeli enablers.