Defense Ministry vows to take ‘appropriate action’ if NSO violated license rules

Israel’s Defense Ministry says that if it finds that the NSO Group violated the terms of its export licenses it will “take appropriate action,” following an international investigation that found the company’s cyber surveillance products were used by governments around the world to track political dissidents and journalists, some of whom were killed.

In a statement, the ministry says that Israel only permits companies to export cyber security products to “government figures only for legal purposes and to prevent and investigate crimes and to combat terrorism. And this is dependent upon commitments regarding the end use/user from the purchasing country, which must abide by these conditions.”

“If it is found that there was use [of NSO Group’s products] in violation of the conditions of the license or in violation of the statements from the purchasing countries, we will take appropriate action,” the ministry says.

The ministry refuses to say if it will investigate the claims in the reports, which were published by the Washington Post, Le Monde, Die Zeit, the Guardian, Haaretz, PBS Frontline, and other news outlets that collaborated on an investigation into a data leak of more than 50,000 cellphone numbers obtained by the Paris-based journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International and shared with 17 news organizations.