US sanctions four companies, including NSO Group, that sell spyware or hacking tools, adding them to a list of entities engaging in “malicious cyber activities”

The US government has sanctioned today four companies that develop and sell spyware and other hacking tools, the US Department of Commerce announced today.

The Record 2021-11-04 Catalin Cimpanu

Context & Ripple Effects

Commerce had already restricted export and resale of hacking tools to China, Russia, and other countries of concern. Adding NSO Group and three other vendors to its malicious-cyber-activities list extends that policy from destination-based controls to named suppliers.

The move matters because it treats commercial spyware and intrusion-tool vendors as a trade-control target, rather than only regulating where their products may be sent.

First-order effects

NSO Group and the other three named companies face an immediate Commerce designation tied to their sale of spyware or hacking tools.
The US Department of Commerce broadens its use of export-control enforcement against vendors it associates with malicious cyber activities.

Second-order effects

Other spyware and hacking-tool sellers must account for a higher risk that Commerce controls can attach to the supplier itself, alongside restrictions on particular export destinations.
Customers and intermediaries handling these tools face greater pressure to verify whether a vendor or transaction falls within Commerce's expanding restrictions.

Third-order effects

If Commerce continues pairing destination rules with company-specific listings, cyber-tool trade will be governed increasingly through managed export controls aimed at both buyers and suppliers.
The approach shifts competitive advantage toward vendors able to operate within government-defined access rules, while leaving cross-border spyware distribution more dependent on regulatory approval.

The trend: The US is moving toward export controls that treat commercial offensive-cyber capabilities as strategic technologies whose suppliers and destinations can both be restricted.

Discussion

@jsrailton John Scott-Railton on x
Was just on @BBCWorld calling out NSO Group's latest dubious claims. NSO: we are helping US national security USA🇺🇸: yeah, no. We're blacklisting you. https://twitter.com/...
@nicoleperlroth Nicole Perlroth on x
HUGE: The Biden Administration has just blacklisted #NSO. This was one of the key recommendations of my book “This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends,” and is an emotional development for me after years of covering NSO's harms. Today I am thinking of Ahmed Mansoor. https://twitte…
@campuscodi Catalin Cimpanu on x
Breaking: The US government has sanctioned today four companies selling spyware and hacking tools: -NSO Group (🇮🇱) -Candiru (🇮🇱) -Positive Technologies (🇷🇺) -Computer Security Initiative Consultancy (🇸🇬) https://therecord.media/... https://twitter.com/...
@davidakaye David Kaye on x
the @JoeBiden admin adding #Israel's #NSO to blacklist is a very big deal - underscores how #spyware like #Pegasus is a threat to human rights & a tool of transnational repression. key first step, and much more to do. https://twitter.com/...
@rondeibert Profdeibert on x
Big news 👇👇 U.S. Department of Commerce Adds NSO Group, Candiru and Other Foreign Companies to Entity List for Malicious Cyber Activities https://www.commerce.gov/... via @CommerceGov
@marietjeschaake Marietje Schaake on x
Best news of my day: US puts Israeli spyware firm NSO Group on trade blacklist ↘️ https://giftarticle.ft.com/...
@rondeibert Profdeibert on x
Everyone is likely aware of NSO Group. For Candiru, here is a recent @citizenlab report on the company “Hooking Candiru: Another Mercenary Spyware Vendor Comes into Focus”: https://citizenlab.ca/...
@carolecadwalla Carole Cadwalladr on x
Extraordinary to remember that Cherie Blair is an advisor to the company https://twitter.com/...
@kimzetter Kim Zetter on x
“The announcement...came as a surprise to the Israeli defense ministry...While Israeli officials insisted they were unprepared for the move, which prohibits [NSO] from acquiring American tech, the Israeli gov had received a string of official and private warnings from Washington”…
@ydanasmithdutra @ydanasmithdutra on x
NSO Group's Pegasus was originally PROMIS developed by Inslaw, an early case management software system known for a lawsuit brought against the United States Department of Justice in 1986 appointed by Special Counsel US Attorney William P. Barr. https://www.archives.gov/... https…
@statedrl @statedrl on x
“As part of its commitment to put human rights at the center of U.S. foreign policy, the Biden-Harris Administration is working to stop the proliferation and misuse of digital tools used for repression.” Read the full press release here: https://www.state.gov/... https://twitter.…
@marahvistendahl Mara Hvistendahl on x
Definitely big. Now do Cellebrite https://twitter.com/...
@svaradarajan Siddharth on x
HUGE news out of Washington... This is a slap in the face of Pegasus's Israeli vendor, NSO Group, and its rogue clients, including the Modi government, as well as Tel Aviv—whose export licenses have allowed the violation of human rights on a global scale https://thewire.in/...
@nicoleperlroth Nicole Perlroth on x
This is the biggest step a US President has taken to curb the abuse of spyware. Worth noting it also keeps US-based brokers like Zerodium from selling zero-day exploits to NSO. Big Q is will USG go harder and use Magnitsky Act to freeze NSO's assets, as @RonWyden others suggest. …
@agnescallamard Agnes Callamard on x
#US government Adds #NSO Group and Other Foreign Companies to Entity List for Malicious Cyber Activities. This is a formidable achievement, no doubt directly related to the #Pegasus project. Congrats to my @AmnestyTech colleagues and @FbdnStories https://www.commerce.gov/...
@nicoleperlroth Nicole Perlroth on x
Applying Magnitsky would likely railroad any chance NSO has of a lucrative exit, keeping it from going public, and force institutional investors like Novalpina's biggest LPs (Hey OREGON STATE PENSION FUND(!)) to divest.
@ramabdu @ramabdu on x
The US has added NSO Group, the Israeli military spyware company that created software traced to the phones of journalists and human rights activists to a trade blacklist as it targets the growing surveillance threat posed by hacking-for-hire companies. https://www.ft.com/...
@nicoleperlroth Nicole Perlroth on x
The latest Biden Admin. rule is the furthest any administration has gone in curbing spyware abuse. It's an elbow at Israel, which has been greenlighting the sale of NSO and Candiru to oppressive regimes in the Gulf. NSO just swapped out CEOs as it aims IPO https://www.nytimes.com…
@campuscodi Catalin Cimpanu on x
NSO Group has issued a formal statement on today's US Commerce Dept sanctions: https://twitter.com/...
@sophieintveld Sophie on x
US has blacklisted NSO-group! Meanwhile in Europe: @EU_commission has yet to answer our questions, denies having had any contacts with NSO, fails to scrutinize national governments. #Pegasus https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@restofworld @restofworld on x
Earlier this year we wrote about the NSO Group and its ties to Unit 8200, the elite IDF intelligence unit that's spawned many of the world's leading cybersurveillance companies https://restofworld.org/... https://twitter.com/...
@webradius A Weisburd on x
“the listing could restrict NSO's ability to use top-of-the-line cloud-computing services... [and/] or hinder their trade with American researchers who study the kinds of software exploits and vulnerabilities that NSO depends on for infecting phones” https://www.washingtonpost.co…
@drewharwell Drew Harwell on x
@citizenlab NSO has pushed hard to woo D.C. power brokers, as I wrote here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/ .... @davidakaye says “this shows that attempt has failed ... Who would invest in a company with this kind of black mark?” https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@nakashimae Ellen Nakashima on x
ALERT: Biden administration has blacklisted the Israeli spyware company NSO Group after determining its Pegasus phone-hacking tool was used to “maliciously target” govt officials, journalists, activists, among others. @drewharwell @craigtimberg https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...
@chrissheridan34 Chris Sheridan on x
It was Pegasus spyware that, analysts believe, helped the Saudis gather information on Jamal Khashoggi before his death. https://twitter.com/...
@grahambrookie Graham Brookie on x
This is a big step. But it is also only a first step and an easy one at that. The gaps between democratic countries in our approach to how we design, fund, and govern technology is the space that authoritarians abroad and would-be autocrats at home seep into. https://twitter.com/…
@gauravgogoiasm Gaurav Gogoi on x
In another major development, the U.S. government has blacklisted NSO Group the company behind Pegasus citing the malicious targeting of civilians by foreign governments. When will PM Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah be truthful about the use of Pegasus in India ? https://twitter…
@jimstewartson @jimstewartson on x
Oh. So the Dept. of Commerce is the only government organization that remotely has their shit together? Great. https://twitter.com/...
@hadas_gold Hadas Gold on x
US adds 2 Israeli firms - including spyware company NSO - to trade blacklist for supplying tools to foreign govs that were used in ways that “threaten the rules-based international order.” https://www.commerce.gov/...
@hadas_gold Hadas Gold on x
NSO respondes: “dismayed by the decision given that our technologies support US national security interests and policies by preventing terrorism and crime, and thus we will advocate for this decision to be reversed.” https://twitter.com/...
@drewharwell Drew Harwell on x
Giant win for @citizenlab, researchers and journalists who have investigated Pegasus spyware abuse - and a repudiation of Israel, which has for years endorsed NSO selling a tech that the U.S. now says helped authoritarian governments repress and surveil https://www.washingtonpost…
@josephfcox Joseph Cox on x
Here are some examples of the tech NSO uses. Dell, Cisco, Microsoft, etc. Have pinged them for commenting asking if they will stop selling products to NSO https://www.vice.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@skirchy Stephanie Kirchgaessner on x
Needless to say: this does not bode well for NSO's in its ongoing lawsuit with WhatsApp.
@alaashehabi @alaashehabi on x
Whoa. US government has sanctioned the NSO Group saying it is responsible for “transnational repression”. This sanction will “restrict exports of US technology to the companies.” https://www.ft.com/...
@financialtimes @financialtimes on x
Breaking news: The US has added NSO Group, the Israeli military spyware company that created software that has been traced to the phones of journalists and human rights activists, to a trade blacklist https://www.ft.com/... https://twitter.com/...
@campuscodi Catalin Cimpanu on x
Can anyone help with CSIC attribution? Any idea why the Commerce Department sanctioned it? Were exploits bought via Pwn0rama linked to any incidents or intrusions? https://twitter.com/...
@langamahesh Mahesh Langa on x
Big! US administration takes action against NSO group that supplies weapon grade spyware. https://twitter.com/...
@mkvenu1 M K Venu on x
Very important this! India is only country not to have either probed or even written to NSO seeking formation! Either in 2019(WhatsApp hacking by Pegasus ) or in 2021! https://twitter.com/...
@natashabertrand Natasha Bertrand on x
Commerce Dept adds NSO Group to its entity list, saying it “developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments” that then used the tools to target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers. https://www.commerce.gov/...

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