Israel’s NSO Group and its shell companies are in radar for providing surveillance services

Israeli NSO Group is in news nowadays in India since it was used to hack journalists and dissidents. The opposition party in India has been accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of compromising national security following the revelations that dozens of Indians were potential targets of snooping by Israeli spyware — Pegasus.

Over time, Israel’s cyber warriors have increasingly taken their skills to the private surveillance industry. Today, Israel — the self-proclaimed “startup nation,” is selling its products around the world to governments that want to spy on their own citizens.

Shell companies and global network of NSO group is spread all across the world. The Israeli group has been operating in Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America; mostly in countries with weak regulatory bodies. It has been disclosed that NSO Group operates through several shell companies; all of which use a unique name. It is known as Q Cyber Technologies in Israel, OSY Techno-logies in Luxembourg, and by the name of Westbridge in North America.

Few months back, Israel-made spying tools were bought for Bangladesh’s intelligence service, even when the South Asian country has neither been recognised by Israel nor has a geopolitical alignment with it.

Another Israeli Company — “Quadream” was found to be involved in selling cyber-espionage tech services to Saudi Arabia. The services were used to hack smartphones of dissidents and spy on the communications of the opponents of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS).

Candiru, an Israeli firm specialising in cyber-intrusion, received investment from Qatar Investment Bank. According to the Citizen Lab report, Candiru’s exploits have been linked to nation-state malware attacks observed in Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

It was also discovered that Candiru likely made sweet deals with Uzbekistan’s National Security Service, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Singapore’s intelligence services, which was also a company linked to Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. Meanwhile, Spain’s Excem Technologies appears to be an outpost for Israeli cybersecurity developers.

Overall it’s clear that Israel’s cyber intelligence companies are spreading their wings across the world and making it a “technology hub”. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that Israeli espionage industry has spearheaded the global commerce in surveillance tools and communications interception.