Exclusive US lawmakers demand sanctions against Israeli NSO and other spyware companies

By Joseph Menn and Joel Schectman

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A group of U.S. lawmakers are urging the Treasury Department and the State Department to punish Israeli spy companies and three other foreign surveillance companies for helping authoritarian governments commit human rights violations.

The letter, which was sent to Reuters on Tuesday night, calls for sanctions against NSO, the United Arab Emirates cybersecurity company DarkMatter and the top executives of Nexa Technologies and Trovicor.

Lawmakers called for Global Magnitsky sanctions, punishing those accused of allowing human rights violations by freezing bank accounts and banning travel to the United States.

DarkMatter could not be reached for comment. The other three companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The letter was signed by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff and 16 other Democratic lawmakers. Along with other industry reports, this month they cite a recent Reuters article showing that NSO spies were used against Ugandan State Department staff.

Lawmakers say the spyware industry is based on U.S. investment and banking. “In order to punish them sensibly and send a clear signal to the surveillance technology industry, the US government should impose financial sanctions,” they wrote.

The letter states that the companies facilitated the “disappearance, torture and murder of human rights activists and journalists.” Surveillance companies have taken more and more control over Washington, as media reports have linked them to human rights violations.

“These surveillance mercenaries sold their services to authoritarian regimes with a long history of human rights violations, giving tyrants great espionage power,” Wyden told Reuters. “Predictably, these nations used surveillance tools to block, torture and kill journalists and human rights defenders. The Biden administration has the opportunity to shut down the draft US dollars and help them leave business for good.”

In November, the U.S. Department of Commerce placed the NSO on the so-called Entity List, banning U.S. suppliers from selling software or services without obtaining special permission from the Israeli spyware creator.

Numerous legal challenges also threaten the industry. Last week, a prominent Saudi activist and the nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation sued DarkMatter for allegedly hacking his phone.

Apple (NASDAQ 🙂 sued the NSO Group in November for violating U.S. laws for violating software installed on iPhones.

A Reuters 2019 investigation in the letter also revealed a secret hacking unit inside DarkMatter, known as Project Raven (NASDAQ :), which helped the Basque Country spy on its enemies. In a September deal with the Justice Department, three members of that unit, all former U.S. intelligence agents, admitted to breaking the hacking law.