Israeli court dismisses Amnesty lawsuit to curb Israeli spyware firm

Occupied Palestine (QNN)- An Israeli court has dismissed Amnesty International’s legal bid to stop NSO Group from exporting controversial surveillance software, suspected to be spying on journalists and activists worldwide, stated Amnesty International.
NSO, an Israeli hacker-for-hire company, uses its Pegasus spyware to take control of cell phones, their cameras and microphones, and mine users’ personal data.
The company has been accused of selling its surveillance software to repressive governments that use it against human rights activists.
The international organization said the company spied on one of its employees in a “shocking” move, according to the organization’s lawyer, Itai Mack.
Mack added that “the attempt to attack an amnesty international staff member is a message to all human rights activists around the world saying to each of them: you are also a target “.
Amnesty stated that governments around the world have used the Israeli company’s cellphone-hacking software, Pegasus, to crack down on activists, and petitioned to get NSO’s export license revoked.
The case, brought by Amnesty International in January, called on the court to prevent NSO from selling its technology abroad, especially to repressive regimes.
Facebook had filed a lawsuit in California federal court, saying the company tried to hack some 1,400 Whatsapp users with malicious software to steal valuable information from users. The tech giant deleted the accounts of employees who work at the Israeli NSO group as well.
Earlier this year, two UN special rapporteurs revealed that the Saudi authorities used NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware to hack the cell phone of Amazon CEO and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos.
Reports also revealed that the Moroccan government has used the Israeli technology company NSO Group’s notorious spyware to spy on Moroccan journalist Omar Radi, while the Saudi Authorities used it to spy on the slain Saudi journalist Jamal khashoggi.