Creepy Israeli Spyware Vendor NSO Group Reportedly Sells to U.S. Company at the Worst Possible Time

It appears the Israel-based NSO Group—a notorious peddler of powerfully invasive spyware—has been purchased by an American company. The news was first reported by Israeli outlet Calcalist and confirmed by TechCrunch.

NSO, which is best known for its phone-hacking malware Pegasus, has been at the center of surveillance scandals for years. An investor group led by Hollywood producer Robert Simonds is the new owner of the hack-for-hire firm, according to Calcalist. The deal, which is said to be worth “several tens of millions of dollars,†is expected to be finalized “in the coming days, though its completion will require approval from Israel’s Defense Export Control Agency (DECA) at the Ministry of Defense,†the outlet writes.

NSO spokesperson Oded Hershowitz reportedly told TechCrunch that “an American investment group has invested tens of millions of dollars in the company and has acquired controlling ownership.†Hershowitz told TechCrunch: “This investment does not mean that the company is moving out of Israeli regulatory or operational control. The company’s headquarters and core operations remain in Israel. It continues to be fully supervised and regulated by the relevant Israeli authorities, including the Ministry of Defense and the Israeli regulatory framework.†Gizmodo reached out to NSO Group for comment, and we’ll update this story when we receive a reply.

NSO hasn’t just had a rough few years—it’s had a rough decade. As early as 2015-2016, the company was mired in controversy due to the autocratic governments that bought its products. By 2018, Amnesty International was claming its staff had been hacked using the company’s malware. In 2019, Facebook and WhatsApp sued NSO, accusing it of exploiting bugs in its messenger’s code to allow the surveillance of app users. The lawsuit was later joined by a number of prominent tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, Cisco, and Dell, many of whom later argued that NSO’s spyware victims should be able to sue the company for privacy violations. In 2021, it was sued by Apple. That same year, NSO was placed on a federal blacklist that forbids U.S. companies from providing resources or support to it without official government approval. Last year, a judge found the company liable in the lawsuit filed by WhatsApp.

Throughout this period, there have continued to be a plethora of controversies involving the company. There have also been attempts by U.S. firms to buy NSO. In 2022, the major U.S. defense contractor L3Harris mulled the acquisition of NSO but seems to have been dissuaded from such a purchase by the Biden administration, which had previously blacklisted the firm. It’s unclear what the spyware firm’s future will look like under its new American owners, but it ensures that the company has a future, and puts the powerful cyber arsenal into U.S. hands—just in time for Trump’s newly forming police state.