Israel Sets Up Team Of Ministers To Examine Pegasus Scandal

Spyware Pegasus made by Israel's NSO was allegedly used to hack journalists' phones

Israel has set up a senior inter-ministerial team to look into growing allegations that spyware sold by an Israeli cyber firm has been abused on a global scale, news agency Reuters reported quoting an unnamed Israeli source today. The source said a review of the export of the spyware, Pegasus, is 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 told Reuters.

"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.

Phone numbers of Indian ministers, opposition leaders and journalists have been found on a database of targets for hacking that used the Israeli spyware - only available to governments - reported The Wire and other publications on Sunday.

Members of the legal community, businessmen, government officials, scientists, activists and others are also on the list of over 300 verified Indian mobile telephone numbers, the reports said. However, the Indian government has denied involvement in the hacking, saying, "The allegations regarding government surveillance on specific people has no concrete basis or truth associated with it whatsoever."

On Wednesday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said French President Emmanuel Macron had called for a series of investigations to be carried out into the Pegasus spyware case.

Mr Macron's phone was on a list of potential targets for possible surveillance on behalf of Morocco in the Pegasus case, France's Le Monde newspaper said on Tuesday. The Reuters source, who has first-hand knowledge of the Israeli team and asked not to be named, deemed it "doubtful" that new curbs would be placed on Pegasus exports.

Stopping short of describing the team's task as a formal investigation, the source said, "The objective is to find out what happened, to look into this issue and learn lessons."

Commenting on the development, an NSO spokesperson said, "We welcome any decision made by the government of Israel, and we are convinced that the company's activities are without flaw." Mr Bennett's office declined comment.

The global investigation published on Sunday by 17 media organisations, led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, said Pegasus had been used in attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists. NSO has rejected the reporting by the media partners, saying it was "full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories".

Pegasus is intended for use only by government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to fight terrorism and crime, NSO said. Such purposes are also what guide Israel's export policy, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said in a speech on Tuesday.

But, in a reference to the allegations around Pegasus, he added, "We are currently studying the information published on the matter."

At the conference, Mr Bennett said Israel has memorandums of understanding with dozens of countries about cyber security, which he wants to upgrade into a "global cyber defence shield."

With inputs from Reuters