United States democratic lawmakers have requested the State Department and Treasury Department to severely sanction Israeli-based NSO Group, including three more surveillance software firms, because of human rights exploitations.
In a letter signed by the lawmakers, the legislators stated that they urge the Secretary of Treasury and State to apply severe sanctions to the NSO group, DarkMatter, and Nexa Technologies, under the Magnitsky Act.
First published in 2021, the Magnitsky Human Rights Act became law in 2016 as part of the Defense Authorisation Act. It then became the Magnitsky Rule of Law Act which was developed to punish Russian officials. The Magnitsky Act’s sanction is to punish threat groups by restricting travel, freezing assets, and limiting transactions if they have committed human rights abuses or corruption.
The lawmakers believed that the NSO Group was the one who has provided software for hacking to the UAE, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and numerous governments, resulting in those countries hacking into devices of human rights activists, reporters, and journalists.
Lawmakers emphasized that the NSO Group is responsible for most cyber threats these days.
The NSO Group paved the way for numerous governments to attack their rivals via spyware and info stealers, according to the lawmakers’ statements.
On a related report, the DarkMatter Group compromised the devices of journalists and human rights activists on behalf of the UAE. Moreover, Nexa Technologies is also accused of selling internet monitoring techs to Libya and Egypt, resulting in apprehension and torture for human rights representatives. Also, Bahrain has a similar incident confirmed by Trovicor.
The NSO Group, including Candiru from Israel, Positive Technologies from Russia, and Computer Security Initiative Consultancy from Singapore, were sanctioned last November by being monitored on the Commerce Department’s Entity List, resulting in limited hardware exports and software from the United States.
These sanctioned companies, including the NSO group, will critically miss the service provided by the US. Although the US will see a decline of customers, limiting entities with ulterior motives is advantageous for their end.
