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Israel’s National Security Council Looking into NSO Spyware Allegations

A man reads at a stand of the NSO Group Technologies, an Israeli technology firm known for its Pegasus spyware enabling the remote surveillance of smartphones, at the annual European Police Congress in Berlin, Germany, February 4, 2020. (Reuters)
A man reads at a stand of the NSO Group Technologies, an Israeli technology firm known for its Pegasus spyware enabling the remote surveillance of smartphones, at the annual European Police Congress in Berlin, Germany, February 4, 2020. (Reuters)
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Israel’s National Security Council Looking into NSO Spyware Allegations

A man reads at a stand of the NSO Group Technologies, an Israeli technology firm known for its Pegasus spyware enabling the remote surveillance of smartphones, at the annual European Police Congress in Berlin, Germany, February 4, 2020. (Reuters)
A man reads at a stand of the NSO Group Technologies, an Israeli technology firm known for its Pegasus spyware enabling the remote surveillance of smartphones, at the annual European Police Congress in Berlin, Germany, February 4, 2020. (Reuters)

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, 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 Defense Ministry, which oversees exports of NSO Group’s Pegasus software, the source said.

“This event is beyond the Defense 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.

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.

Macron’s phone was on a list of potential targets for possible surveillance in the Pegasus case, France’s Le Monde newspaper said on Tuesday.

The source, who has first-hand knowledge of the Israeli team and requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, 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.”

Bennett’s office declined comment. Addressing a cyber conference on Wednesday, the prime minister did not mention the NSO affair.

‘Wrong assumptions’
A global investigation published on Sunday by 17 media organizations, 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, Defense 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, Bennett said Israel has memorandums of understanding with dozens of countries about cyber security, which he wants to upgrade into a “global cyber defense shield”.

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US-Japan Security Talks Underscore Threat from China

US Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara (not pictured) attend their Extended Deterrence Ministerial Meeting at Iikura Guest House in Tokyo, Japan July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Issei Kato
US Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara (not pictured) attend their Extended Deterrence Ministerial Meeting at Iikura Guest House in Tokyo, Japan July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Issei Kato
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US-Japan Security Talks Underscore Threat from China

US Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara (not pictured) attend their Extended Deterrence Ministerial Meeting at Iikura Guest House in Tokyo, Japan July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Issei Kato
US Ambassador to Japan, Rahm Emanuel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Japanese Foreign Minister Yoko Kamikawa, Defense Minister Minoru Kihara (not pictured) attend their Extended Deterrence Ministerial Meeting at Iikura Guest House in Tokyo, Japan July 28, 2024. REUTERS/Issei Kato

Japanese and US defense chiefs and top diplomats agreed to further bolster their military cooperation by upgrading the command and control of US forces in the East Asian country and strengthening American-licensed missile production there, describing the rising threat from China as “the greatest strategic challenge.”
Japan is home to more than 50,000 US troops, but the commander for the US Forces Japan headquartered in Yokota in the western suburbs of Tokyo, tasked with managing their bases, has no commanding authority. Instead, instructions come from the US Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii. The plans will give the USFJ greater capability while still reporting to INDOPACOM.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin joined their Japanese counterparts, Yoko Kamikawa and Minoru Kihara, at the Japan-US Security Consultative Committee in Tokyo, known as “2+2” security talks where they reaffirmed their bilateral alliance following President Joe Biden's withdrawal from the November presidential race.

“We are standing at a historic turning point as the rules-based, free and open international order is shaken to the core," Kamikawa said. "Now is a critical phase when our decision today determines our future.”

Austin, in his opening remarks, said China is “engaging in coercive behavior, trying to change the status quo in the East and South China Seas, around Taiwan and throughout the region," adding that North Korea's nuclear program and its deepening cooperation with Russia “threaten regional and global security.”

In the joint statement issued after the talks, the ministers said China's foreign policy “seeks to reshape the international order for its own benefit at the expense of others” and that “such behavior is a serious concern to the alliance and the entire international community and represents the greatest strategic challenge in the Indo-Pacific region and beyond.”

China has been at odds with many countries in the Asia-Pacific for years because of its sweeping maritime claims over the crucial South China Sea. It also claims self-governing Taiwan as its territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. In March, Beijing announced a 7.2% increase in its defense budget, already the world’s second-highest behind the United States, marking a massive military expansion.

According to The Associated Press, the ministers said the US command reorganization, set for March to be in line with Japan's own command updating, aimed “to facilitate deeper interoperability and cooperation on joint bilateral operations in peacetime and during contingencies” and enhance intelligence coordination, surveillance, reconnaissance and cybersecurity.

Japan has long suffered from cybersecurity threats that Washington believes are of grave concern. Lately, Japan’s space agency revealed it suffered a series of cyberattacks, and though sensitive information related to space and defense was not affected, it has triggered worry and pushed the agency to pursue preventative measures.

The ministers in a joint statement reaffirmed the US commitment to “extended deterrence,” which includes atomic weapons — a shift from Japan’s earlier reluctance to openly discuss the sensitive issue, as the world’s only country to have suffered atomic attacks, amid nuclear threats from Russia and China.