Security News > 2021 > July > Pegasus Scandal Shows Risk of Israel's Spy-tech Diplomacy: Experts
Private Israeli firm NSO Group has denied media reports its Pegasus software is linked to the mass surveillance of journalists and rights defenders, and insisted that all sales of its technology are approved by Israel's defence ministry.
NSO spokesman Oded Hershkovitz told Israel's Army Radio the list of phone numbers was "Not connected" to NSO, but rather to other companies and open-source software.
NSO's Hershkovitz told Army Radio the firm is a "Zionist company that operates only from Israel", and only with approval from the defence ministry.
Contracts require customers to "Respect human rights", including "Rights to privacy and freedom of expression," NSO said.
Israel's defence ministry said it did not have access to information gathered by NSO's clients.
Israeli cybersecurity expert May Brooks-Kempler said that despite the outcry over NSO's tools being used to possibly abuse rights, she did not think the company faced an existential threat.