The chief executive of Israeli spyware maker NSO has resigned as part of a corporate reorganization, the company announced on Sunday. NSO has been linked to a number of scandals resulting from alleged customer misuse of its flagship Pegasus phone surveillance software. Last year, the US placed restrictions on the company, saying its tools had been used to “carry out transnational repression”.
NSO denies any wrongdoing. In a statement, the company said CEO Shalev Hulio, one of its founders, would step down. Yaron Shohat, the company's chief operating officer, will lead the firm on an interim basis and will manage the reorganization process while it searches for a new CEO. An employee of the corporation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the reorganization efforts, said Hulio will remain with the company.
The worker added that 100 employees, or about 13% of NSO's workforce, would be laid off. Pegasus allows operators to stealthily invade a target's mobile device, giving them access to contacts, messages, and movement history. The company says that Pegasus is sold only to foreign governments after approval by the Israeli Defense Ministry as a tool to catch criminals and terrorists. Through this tool, prominent pro-independence leaders and members of the Spanish Government were spied on, including the president.
The company says it has safeguards in place to prevent abuse, but critics say these safeguards don't go far enough, and NSO has acknowledged it can't control who its customers monitor. It says that it does not have access to the information that is collected.
Critics, including human rights groups and outside investigators, say customers have abused Pegasus to surveil journalists, rights activists and political dissidents in multiple countries. NSO does not identify its clients. But the company has acknowledged that it cut off at least seven customers for abusing its technology. These have reportedly included authorities in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
The Sunday statement said the company's reorganization will look at "all aspects of its business, including streamlining its operations to ensure NSO remains one of the world's leading high-tech cyber intelligence companies, with a focus on the member countries of NATO. NSO is also facing lawsuits from Apple and Facebook that accuse the Israeli firm of trespassing on their products.
The US Department of Commerce's decision to add NSO to its "entity list" has harmed the company by limiting its access to US components and technology. The company was also affected by a Israeli decision late last year to tighten its oversight of cyber exports. That decision, made in the wake of criticism that Israel's oversight of the digital surveillance industry was too lax, has reduced the number of countries that can buy Israeli cyber software from more than 100 to 37.
