Pegasus spying scandal: Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announces state inquiry
Categories: FOREIGN COUNTRIES
Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has announced a state inquiry into the widening Pegasus spying scandal."Things allegedly happened here that are very serious," he said in a statement that also credited Pegasus as "an important tool in the fight against terrorism and severe crime"."We must not lose our democracy. We must not lose our police. And we must certainly not lose public trust in them. This requires an in-depth and thorough investigation," Herzog said in response to the Calcalist report. NSO says it only sells its spyware to legitimate government law enforcement and intelligence agencies vetted by Israel’s Defense Ministry for use against terrorists and criminals. NSO Group is facing daunting financial and legal challenges, including the threat of default on more than $300 million in debt, after governments used Pegasus spyware to spy on dissidents, journalists, diplomats, and human rights activists from countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, and the United States. The US blacklisting of NSO has effectively barred US companies from supplying technology to the Israeli firm.Apple sued NSO last month, bent on halting the violation of its operating systems with exploits including a so-called zero-click hack that can compromise a device with no user interaction. The company alerted scores of users worldwide that they had been hacked.In 2019, Facebook sued the Israeli firm over allegations of hacking its globally popular WhatsApp messenger app.