There are plenty of companies willing to fill this void.
If NSO Group shuts down its malware arm, it won't make things safer for dissidents, government critics, and journalists.
FIFTH CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS SOCIAL SECYRITY VA RATING FREE
Plenty of companies operating out of free countries are willing to sell exploits to governments they know will abuse them to commit human rights violations. Cytrox/Intellexa has never offered any such assurances, possibly because it has an international rap sheet that would immediately undercut its assertions. NSO claims it only sells malware for those more acceptable reasons. But the market consists of unhealthy governments more interested in tracking and surveilling critics than engaging in counterterrorism or investigating serious criminal activity. It appears there's a healthy market for powerful phone exploits. The company allegedly sold spy tech to Libya in 2007 and to Egypt in 2014. Founded in 2019 by a former Israeli military officer and entrepreneur named Tal Dilian, Intellexa includes companies that have run afoul of authorities in various countries for alleged abuses.įour executives of one such firm, Nexa Technologies, were charged in France this year for “complicity of torture” in Libya while criminal charges were filed against three company executives for “complicity of torture and enforced disappearance” in Egypt. But the Times of Israel has the receipts.Ĭytrox was part of a shadowy alliance of surveillance tech companies known as Intellexa that was formed to compete with NSO Group.
Cytrox, however, has moved around, changing both its home base and its name several times to distance itself from its irresponsible malware sales. NSO Group has always been located in Israel. Once again, powerful hacking tools deployed against government critics have been traced back to companies with an Israeli presence. We conducted scanning that identified the Egyptian Government as a Cytrox Predator customer, websites used in the hacks of the two targets bore Egyptian themes, and the messages that initiated the hack were sent from Egyptian WhatsApp numbers. We attribute the attacks on the two targets to the Egyptian Government with medium-high confidence. What's more surprising is that attribution can be made since attackers using these powerful hacking tools usually do a little better covering their tracks. Unsurprisingly, these attacks have been traced back to the Egyptian government. The other target is a journalist now in exile who has been openly critical of Egypt's new president. Shortly after Nour's election loss, he was jailed for allegedly forging signatures on petitions - a move generally recognized as retaliation from his victorious opponent. The phone of Ayman Nour was simultaneously infected with both Cytrox’s Predator and NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware, operated by two different government clients.īoth targets were hacked with Predator in June 2021, and the spyware was able to infect the then-latest version (14.6) of Apple’s iOS operating system using single-click links sent via WhatsApp.Īyman Nour, the lucky recipient of two different strains of malware, is the head of an opposition group who ran against former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Two Egyptians-exiled politician Ayman Nour and the host of a popular news program (who wishes to remain anonymous)-were hacked with Predator spyware, built and sold by the previously little-known mercenary spyware developer Cytrox.
And yet another twist: both companies have their roots in Israel, which is home to at least 19 entities that develop phone exploits. One of those targeted had his phone infected by two forms of malware produced by two different companies. Citizen Lab has uncovered more state-level spying targeting political opponents and journalists.
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