Israel Bans Sales of Hacking and Surveillance Tools to 65 Countries

Israel’s Ministry of Defense has dramatically restricted the
number of countries to which cybersecurity firms in the country are
allowed to sell offensive hacking and surveillance tools to,
cutting off 65 nations from the export list.

The revised list, details of which were first reported by the
Israeli business newspaper Calcalist^[1], now only includes 37
countries, down from the previous 102:

Notably missing from the list are countries such as Morocco,
Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E, which have been previously
identified as customers of Israeli spyware vendor NSO Group. In
curtailing the exports, the move effectively makes it harder for
local cybersecurity firms to market their software to countries
with totalitarian regimes or with a track record of perpetrating
human abuses.

The move comes close on the heels of the U.S. Commerce
Department adding NSO Group and Candiru to its trade blocklist^[2]
for developing and supplying sophisticated interception or
intrusion capabilities to foreign governments that then used the
spy tools to strike journalists, activists, dissidents, academics,
and government officials across the world.

Earlier this week, Apple followed with its own salvo, filing a lawsuit^[3]
against NSO Group and its parent company Q Cyber Technologies for
illegally targeting its users with Pegasus, military-grade
spyware that’s designed to harvest sensitive personal and
geolocation information and surreptitiously activate the phones’
cameras and microphones.

“By marketing to [U.S./NATO adversaries], these firms signal
that they are willing to accept or ignore the risk that their
products may bolster the capabilities of authoritarian and/or
adversary governments, which may use their products to target
vulnerable populations within their country or conduct foreign
espionage more effectively,” Atlantic Council said^[4]
in a report published earlier this month detailing the
proliferation of the cyber-surveillance industry.