U.S. blacklists Israeli NSO Group for supplying Pegasus spyware

• The NSO Group was known for supplying Pegasus software to governments for spying

• Firms are barred from exporting products, services or data to the sanctioned companies

The U.S. Commerce Department on Wednesday said, it added Israel's NSO Group and Candiru to trade blacklist, citing that these organizations sold spyware to foreign governments that used the tools to target government officials, journalists and others.

Positive Technologies of Russia, and Computer Security Initiative Consultancy PTE LTD of Singapore, were also flagged for trafficking cyber tools used to gain unauthorized access to computer networks.

Also Read: U.S. Treasury to introduce sanctions to curb ransomware attacks: WSJ

Sanction

The companies were added to the ‘Final Rule’ list by the Bureau of Industry and Security, Commerce for engaging in activities contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interests.

It  means that exports to these firms from U.S counterparts are restricted.

"We are not taking action against countries or governments where these entities are located," said a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department.

The blacklist will make U.S. security researchers harder to sell information about computer vulnerabilities to these companies and it is more likely that the application for license to export data or products to them will be turned down.

Allegations

In the past, the NSO Group and Candiru have been accused of selling hacking tools to authoritarian regimes. NSO says it only sells its products to law enforcement and intelligence agencies and takes steps to curb abuse.

An NSO spokesperson in an e-mailed statement to Reuters said the company was "dismayed" by the decision since its technologies "support U.S. national security interests and policies by preventing terrorism and crime, and thus we will advocate for this decision to be reversed."

NSO will present information regarding its "rigorous" compliance and human rights programs, "which already resulted in multiple terminations of contacts with government agencies that misused our products," the spokesperson said.

The Biden administration imposed sanctions on Positive Technologies, this year for providing support to Russian security services. 

A former U.S. official familiar with Positive Technologies told Reuters that the firm had helped establish computer infrastructure used in Russian cyberattacks on U.S. organizations.

COSEINC founder Thomas Lim is known for organizing a security conference, named SyScan, and was sold to Qihoo 360, a sanctioned Chinese tech firm. 

The sanctions list was increasingly used for national security and foreign policy aims during the Trump administration.

Chinese telecom company Huawei was added in 2019, cutting it off from some key U.S. suppliers and making it difficult for them to produce mobile handsets.

Also Read: Huawei vows to return to smartphone ‘throne’ despite U.S. sanctions, chairperson says

Picture Credit: Paubox