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Over the years, the NSO Group has been under siege by criticism and abuse allegations. In 2016, the United Arab Emirates was catch Use NSO Group’s Pegasus to target human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor. Pegasus is a tool that uses software flaws to crack the iPhone and give control to NSO Group customers.In that case, the UAE government was regarded as the culprit, and the National Bureau of Statistics walked away unscathed (Mansour is still prison Accused of criticizing the state power).
This pattern has been repeated for many years-time and time again, the government will be accused of using NSO hacking tools against dissidents, but the company has denied wrongdoing and escaped punishment. Then, in mid-2021, there were new reports of alleged abuse of Western governments.The company is Sanctioned U.S. in November and December Reuters report Officials of the US State Department were hacked by Pegasus.
Now NSO Group faces expensive public lawsuits from Facebook and Apple. It must deal with debt, low morale, and fundamental threats to its future.Suddenly, the typical representative of spyware is face An existential crisis.
All of these are familiar areas.The mysterious hired hacking industry caused a sensation in international newspapers for the first time headline News In 2014, when the Italian company Hacking Team was accused of selling its “untraceable” spyware to dozens of countries, Look at Violation of human rights or privacy.
Hacking Team allows the world to see a global industry that buys and sells powerful tools to break into computers anywhere.The resulting storm of scandal seems to be finally kill it. The company lost its business and its ability to legally sell its tools internationally. Hacking Team was sold, and in the eyes of the public, it just died.However, in the end it was renamed and started Sell the same product. Only this time, it was a small fish in a larger pond.
James Shires, an assistant professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs at Leiden University, said: “The demise of the Hacking Team has not led to fundamental changes in the industry at all.” “The same motivations and demands still exist.”
The earliest customers in the industry were a small group of countries eager to project power to the world through the Internet. The situation today is much more complicated. Now, more and more countries are paying for the immediate ability to invade opponents internationally and domestically. Billions of dollars are working, but transparency is very low and accountability is even less.
Although public scrutiny of companies that provide hackers hires has increased, the global demand for offensive cyber capabilities is also escalating. In the 21st century, the highest value goals of government are more online than ever before-and hacker attacks are often the most effective way to obtain these goals.
The result is that more and more countries are willing to spend large sums of money to develop complex hacking operations.
For the government, the investment network is a relatively cheap and effective way to compete with rival countries and develop powerful domestic control tools.
“Especially in the past five years, more countries have been developing cyber capabilities,” said Saher Naumaan, chief threat intelligence analyst at BAE Systems.
More and more countries are seeking help from outside. “If you can’t use the skills or talents of your country’s people, but you have the resources to outsource, why don’t you go commercial?” he said. “This is the choice of many different industries. In this way, the network is not that different. You are paying for something you wouldn’t build yourself.”
For example, the oil-rich countries in the Persian Gulf have historically lacked the considerable technical capabilities required to develop domestic hacker forces. So they took a shortcut. “They don’t want to be left behind,” Nauman said.
Military contracting giants around the world are now developing and selling these capabilities. These tools have been used for serious abuse of power. They are also increasingly used for legal criminal investigations and counter-terrorism, and are the key to espionage and military operations.
The demand for products sold by private hacking companies will not disappear. “Compared with ten years ago, the industry today is larger and more well-known,” said Winnona DeSombre, a security researcher and researcher at the Atlantic Council. “Demand is rising because the world’s technological connections are getting closer and closer.”
Desombrey Recently mapped Learn about famous opaque industries by charting hundreds of companies that sell digital surveillance tools around the world. She believes that most of the industry’s growth is hidden from public view, including Western companies selling cyber weapons and surveillance technology to geopolitical opponents.
“When this space is mainly for self-regulation, the biggest problem arises,” she explained. When hacking tools are sold to a foreign government, and the foreign government turns to use the same capabilities on the country of origin, self-regulation “may lead to widespread human rights violations” or even friendly fire.
Aware of the industry’s growing influence, authorities around the world are now aiming to shape its future through sanctions, prosecutions and new export regulations. Even so, the demand for tools is growing.
Ultimately, the most meaningful changes may appear when they have an impact on the company’s revenue.Recent reports show that the NSO Group is burdened with debt and struggle Appeal to Wall Street investment.
“After all, this is a business industry,” Shires said. “If venture capital companies and large corporate investors think this is a risky bet, they will choose to withdraw. Most importantly, this can fundamentally change the industry.”
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