Amazon shuts down accounts linked to NSO Group — report

Amazon has shut down accounts and infrastructure linked to Israeli spyware firm NSO Group, amid the international scandal over its Pegasus software, Vice reports.

“When we learned of this activity, we acted quickly to shut down the relevant infrastructure and accounts,” Amazon says.

The NSO Group and its Pegasus malware — capable of switching on a phone’s camera or microphone and harvesting its data — have been in the headlines since 2016, when researchers accused it of helping spy on a dissident in the United Arab Emirates.

A collaborative investigation by The Washington Post, The Guardian, Le Monde and other media outlets, based on a leaked list of 50,000 phone numbers, revealed the spying may have been far more extensive than previously thought.

The leaked numbers are believed to be connected to people identified by NSO clients as potential surveillance targets.

They include one linked to a murdered Mexican journalist and family members of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.