Based on leaked targeting data, findings from a global media consortium earlier this year provided evidence that NSO Group’s spyware was allegedly used in 50 countries on multiple targeting devices, including journalists, activists and political opponents. was used to infiltrate.
NS US Department of Commerce Said NSO Group and the firm Candiru are being added to the “entity list”, which limits their access to US components and technology because of the need for government permission for exports.
The department said placing these companies on the entity list was part of the Biden administration’s efforts to promote human rights in US foreign policy.
“The United States is committed to aggressively using export controls to hold companies accountable that use technologies to develop, traffic, or conduct malicious activities that may harm civil society members, dissidents, threaten the cyber security of government officials and organizations here and abroad,” the U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said in a statement.
a leading Russian firm, positive technologiesAnd the Singapore-based Computer Security Initiatives consultancy was on the list for smuggling in “cyber tools used to gain unauthorized access,” the department said.
NS Treasury Department ban positive technology, which has a wide international footprint and partnerships with such IT heavyweights Microsoft And ibm, earlier this year.
Researchers say the methods used by NSO Group, the world’s most notorious hacker-for-hire company, have become so sophisticated that it can now infect targeted mobile phones without any user contact.
In July, Microsoft said it had blocked tools developed by Candiru that were used to spy on more than 100 people around the world, including politicians, human rights activists, journalists, academics and political dissidents. .
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