Israel’s National Security Council ‘looking into’ NSO spyware allegations

JERUSALEM: Israel has set up a senior inter-ministerial team to “look into” proliferating allegations that spyware sold by a Israeli cyber firm has been abused on a global scale, an Israeli source said on Wednesday, while adding that an export review was unlikely.

The team is headed by Israel’s National Security Council, which answers to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and has broader areas of expertise than the Defence Ministry, which oversees exports of NSO Group’s Pegasus software, the source said.

“This event is beyond the Defence Ministry purview,” the source said, referring to potential diplomatic blowback after prominent media reports this week of suspected abuses of Pegasus in France, Mexico, India, Morocco and Iraq.