Has NSO phone hacking co. finally gone transparent?
While the company highlights its successes in blocking ISIS terror attacks and cracking drug and pornography rings in Europe, Africa and the Australia-Pacific regions, critics have said its software has been used to abuse human rights in Mexico, Morocco and elsewhere. In December 2019, NSO revealed to the Jerusalem Post that it had cancelled contracts with three clients at a loss of NIS 250 million. In the report released on Wednesday, NSO updates those numbers since 2016 to cancelling relationships with five clients at a loss of $100 million (approximately NIS 330 million.) The report also discloses that in 2020, NSO conducted 12 product misuse investigations and preliminary reviews, all but one following reports from external whistleblowers or media and NGO reports.  In 2020, out of the twelve reports raised through our external and internal whistleblowing processes:  NSO conducted five investigations into product misuse on four continents, with the guidance of external advisors.  Next, NSO said, Of the five:  One case resulted in termination of NSOs relationship with the End Customer.  Two resulted in the required implementation of additional mitigation measures.  Two are still being reviewed.  cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });  if(window.location.pathname.indexOf("656089") != -1){console.log("hedva connatix");document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none";}  For the remaining seven reports, following our preliminary review, we could not identify sufficient information to conduct investigations despite our efforts or the report clearly was not related to the use of our system, said NSO. Next, NSO said that it has an advisory board which has vetoed doing business with 55 countries out od the worlds approximately 190 countries. The advisory board has three NSO senior officials and two Novalpina Capital( its main investor-partner) senior officials. One of the NSO officials in General Counsel Shmuel Sunray who has significant prior legal and security establishment credentials. The rules of the board potentially allow the Novalpina investors or Sunray to veto or slow certain deals. There are also a range of senior legal experts who Sunray consults with serious backgrounds in civil society issues. In addition, From May 2020 through April 2021, approximately 15% of potential new opportunities for Pegasus were rejected for human rights concerns that could not be resolved.  In certain instances, in high-risk regions, NSO has either rejected certain opportunities (e.g., in APAC and the Middle East) or deferred opportunities (e.g., Africa), said the report. In terms of what NSO says it has in its contracts  and it shared several contract provisions  and its due diligence procedures and human rights training for employees, it checks the boxes which human rights experts would want. The question is what all of the above facts mean underneath, something which NSO itself admits it cannot or will not fully answer. For example, NSO stated, But we are aware that due diligence, and even strong contractual provisions, are no guarantee that our products in every instance will be used consistently with responsible business conduct.  Those concerns are heightened because we are unable to monitor immediate use, and have not yet determined whether there could be a technological solution to prevent customers from targeting vulnerable populations, said the report. Its is unclear what steps NSO has taken to see if it can better track how its clients might abuse its technology. Being that criticism of NSO has gone on for some years, if NSO is suggesting that tracking its clients potential abuse is possible, a better understanding of the status of this project could be crucial to judging NSOs overall efforts. Also, NSO does not name a single bad-actor client, leaving no way for anyone else besides the Israeli Defense Ministry, Bulgaria and Cyprus (the three countries from which NSO exports) to perform oversight or check its data. Moreover, NSO said, a number of inherent challenges remain given the nature of our customers. Because of the strict confidentiality requirements of our customers, we are unable to provide actual or alleged victims with information about adverse impacts or implemented remediation, or even acknowledge relationships with specific customers.  Even where we identify product misuse, we cannot breach these confidentiality requirements. While we cooperate with states to try to ensure that when abuses occur within their jurisdictions those affected have access to effective remedy, the confidentiality restrictions limit our ability to do much more, said NSO. Other interesting statistics include NSOs detailing that it has: 60 customers in 40 countries with a breakdown of 51% intelligence agencies, 38% law enforcement and 11% military customers. NSO Group on Wednesday night made its strongest effort yet to address criticism that its Pegasus software for hacking cell phone have been used to hack and oppress human rights activists in its client-countries.