On 21 August 2022 Shalev Hulio resigned from his role as Chief Executive Officer of the Israeli cybersecurity firm NSO Group. Notorious for its Pegasus spyware, NSO Group is regulated by the Israeli Ministry of Defence and consequently functions as a de-facto arm of the state, which allows such spyware to only be licensed for sale in a manner which fits with the regional interests of the Zionist state. These interests usually align with those of US imperialism, but sometimes they don’t, and Hulio’s resignation is the outcome of such a conflict in which US interests have won out.
Spyware as warfare
The rise of consumer technology in the 21st century has brought with it a rise in demand for domestic technology surveillance. Often attempting to hide behind the mask of fighting crime and terrorism, such software is – in practice – used widely for the purposes of state repression and espionage. NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware has in recent years become notorious for the abuse of human rights, due to a combination of its sale to states especially infamous for the silencing of dissidents as well as its unprecedented ability to both infect and monitor targeted devices. As ground-breaking as it is dystopian, Pegasus in particular has been known to be capable of deploying its surveillance malware through ‘zero-click exploits’, allowing the user to infect a target device without the need for any active human interaction, such as opening a hyperlink. Vulnerabilities in applications such as WhatsApp and iMessage have been utilised to allow for this, though Pegasus likely has more exploits unknown to the public at its disposal. Upon installation Pegasus gives the user a range of abilities, which include reading messages and emails on the target device, recording calls, activating microphones and cameras and accessing past and current location details.
The spyware has been sold to a number of states globally, with the first to purchase Pegasus being the Mexican government of Felipe Calderón. The subsequent uses of the system by the Mexican state became emblematic of its application by a number of regimes worldwide. Among other findings, it is alleged to have been used in 2017 to enable the assassination of freelance journalist Cecilio Pineda Birto, who at the time was reporting on links between Mexican politicians and organised crime. It was also used to target a number of allies of Andrés Manuel López Obrador in the run-up to his eventual election, in order to attempt to discredit his new party MORENA and to neutralise any potential threats to the Mexican ruling class. Similar examples of the role of Pegasus in silencing dissidents and smearing opponents can be found in relation to a wide number of states, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and, of course, Israel itself. It is also important to note that Pegasus’ use is not limited to repressing domestic enemies, with devices belonging to British government and US State Department employees believed to have been targeted by foreign powers in recent years.
The cyber-arms race
Such a targeting inevitably stirred the US into action. In early November of 2021, the Biden administration officially blacklisted the company as it was deemed to have acted ‘contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US’. This naturally had a significant impact on the future plans the Israeli state had for the company, with Isaac Benbenisti – who was due to soon take over from Hulio at the time – quitting in light of this blacklisting. In the months since, Israel has been hesitant to license the sale of the spyware. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was unsurprisingly eager to acquire Pegasus (his government’s repression of opponents is well documented) but was denied; with Israel fearful of attracting the wrath of another key ally, Russia.
This may soon be set to change, however. With inter-imperialist tensions rising, Israel is being pressured further to pick a side. The new direction NSO Group states that it wishes to take will allow sales to ‘[focus] on NATO-member countries’, a clear move to align itself more firmly with US imperialism and its allies in the NATO imperialist bloc. This is news that will certainly please the Biden administration, as the US seeks to be able to influence and control which states have access to the highest-quality means of spying on and striking against opponents, both reactionary and revolutionary, through Israel.
That said, Israel is not likely to have a monopoly on such spyware for long. Traditional arms dealers have steadily begun to expand further into cybersecurity markets throughout the 21st century, with Britain’s BAE Systems in particular swallowing five cybersecurity companies between 2008 and 2011. Importantly, the US has been more interested in developing its cyber-arms capabilities than ever. Not only did the FBI obtain a limited licence to access Pegasus under the Trump administration in 2019, but frequent US government collaborator L3Harris attempted a purchase of NSO Group earlier this year. Despite L3Harris reportedly informing NSO that the deal was blessed by the US government, the White House condemned the negotiations when they were revealed to the public in June 2022.
It is clear that the US and other imperialist states have no concern for the abuses of human rights enabled through Pegasus and other systems like it, but rather with which states can and cannot commit such abuses. As inter-imperialist rivalries continue to simmer, the act of Israel and NSO group to fall in line with the US’s current global interests is a key victory for the NATO imperialist bloc.
Matt Chernov
