Israel used cyberweapon on Its own Citizens

Pegasus, which can turn a mobile phone into a pocket spying device, has sparked global controversy following revelations last year that it was used to spy on journalists and dissidents worldwide. Israel’s defence ministry, which must approve all exports of Israeli-made defence industry products, has also opened an investigation into sales of Pegasus overseas. Some said that NSO’s products seemed to solve one of the biggest problems facing law-enforcement and intelligence agencies in the 21st century: that criminals and terrorists had better technology for encrypting their communications than investigators had to decrypt them.

The criminal world had gone dark even as it was increasingly going global. Apple has sued NSO, seeking to bar the spyware firm from using its products and services, and said it would start notifying users targeted by state-sponsored hacking. NSO Group is the world’s most notorious maker of spyware and the F.B.I. had bought a version of Pegasus, NSO’s premier spying tool. For nearly a decade, the Israeli firm had been selling its surveillance software on a subscription basis to law-enforcement and intelligence agencies around the world, promising that it could do what no one else, not a private company, not even a state intelligence service could do: consistently and reliably crack the encrypted communications of any iPhone or Android smartphone.

There were certain cases, where the courts are struggling to deal with claims by security and intelligence services that an urgent warrant is needed to approve the use of surveillance systems to protect state security and prevent terrorism. According to the business daily Calcalist, Pegasus was also used by police on citizens at the forefront of protests against Mr. Netanyahu last year, when he was still Prime Minister, as well as other Israelis. Israeli police have firmly denied the report.

Public Security Minister Omar Barlev, a Netanyahu critic who took office as part of a new government that ousted him in June, offered a more nuanced defence. Sources said, The Netanyahu governments in Israel have been using Pegasus diplomacy to gain support in international forums and promote normalisation with oppressive and dictatorial regimes. According to the NYT, NSO had introduced Pegasus to the global market in 2011, it had helped Mexican authorities capture Joaquín Guzmán Loera, the drug lord known as El Chapo. European investigators have quietly used Pegasus to thwart terrorist plots, fight organized crime and, in one case, take down a global child-abuse ring, identifying dozens of suspects in more than 40 countries.

As per the Privacy Protection Authority, a division of the ministry, said use of Pegasus to monitor Israeli citizens would constitute a "serious violation of privacy", announcing its investigation.