White House issues warning to US firms interested in acquiring Israeli surveillance tech
Source: The Guardian
White House issues warning to US firms interested in acquiring Israeli surveillance tech
National Security Council’s statement comes after the Guardian reported Hollywood financier’s interest in NSO group’s assets
Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington
@skirchy
Thu 29 Jun 2023 11.15 BST
Last modified on Thu 29 Jun 2023 14.21 BST
The Biden administration has warned that any attempted takeover by an American company of Israel’s NSO Group, the maker of one of the world’s most sophisticated cyber-weapons, could prompt a review of whether the acquisition posed a counterintelligence threat to the US government.
The statement by the National Security Council comes after the Guardian reported that Robert Simonds, a Hollywood financier best known for producing several Adam Sandler films, is exploring a possible bid to take control of NSO’s assets, including Pegasus, the company’s spyware.
Simonds was recently appointed to serve as a director of the Luxembourg-based holding company that controls NSO and people familiar with the situation say he is mulling ways to possibly take over some of NSO’s assets. He has privately discussed trying to put NSO’s sought-after technology exclusively in the hands of “Five Eyes”, the intelligence alliance that includes the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the sources said.
Any takeover of the company’s assets would face significant hurdles in Israel, where NSO is closely regulated by the ministry of defence. But it would also face scrutiny in the US.
NSO was placed on a US blacklist in 2021 ...
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/jun/29/israel-nso-surveillance-spyware-pegasus-simonds-biden-national-security
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