The Israeli Defense Ministry stated on Monday that the export of cyber goods, such as spyware supplied by NSO Group, was for legitimate purposes and only for the goal of combating crime and terrorism.
According to a report published on Sunday by 17 media organizations, NSO's spyware was utilised in attempted and successful intrusions of 37 cellphones belonging to journalists, government officials, and human rights activists. Reuters was unable to independently verify the claims.
NSO has rejected what it calls the organisations' "false claims," and has stated that it only provides technology to law enforcement and intelligence agencies of approved nations.
"Our technologies are utilised every day to break up paedophilia organisations, sex and drug trafficking rings, find missing and abducted children, find survivors buried under collapsed structures, and defend airspace from disruptive invasion by hazardous drones," the business claimed.
According to the Defense Ministry, Israel permits the export of cyber goods "exclusively to governmental bodies, for legitimate usage, and only for the purpose of preventing and investigating crime and counter-terrorism."
"Adequate steps are taken in situations where exported products are utilised in contravention of export permits or end use certifications," the ministry stated, without elaborating.
Earlier in the day, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, the chairman of the liberal Meretz party and a member of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's security cabinet, informed reporters that he will meet Defence Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday to discuss NSO Group's exports.
During a televised Meretz faction meeting, lawmaker Mossi Raz urged the party to demand that Israel stop exporting NSOs, which he compared to "exporting armament that is prohibited to non-democratic countries."
Former Israeli military deputy chief Yair Golan, a Meretz legislator, was more hesitant, stating the reporting on NSO "seems tendentious, with a commercial purpose," and adding, "It is not only NSO that does such things."
WANT TO RANK TOP ON GOOGLE: https://bit.ly/2TbXtZc
Comments
Post a Comment