Former vice president of the American company Mobileum, Gary Miller, said that the Israeli spyware maker NSO Group offered a "suitcase of money" for access to the insecure OKS-7 network protocol. This would allow NSO customers to keep track of carrier subscribers in the US.
Miller said that during a conference call that included NSO and Mobileum, co-founder of the first, Omri Lavi, offered a large sum of cash for access to the US company's cellular networks. Representatives of the NSO directly stated that their product is intended for surveillance, but this work is authorized by government agencies. At the same time, the former vice president of Mobileum anonymously reported this to the FBI.
In 2021, Miller made his statement official, and this coincided with the fact that the US Department of Justice was investigating NSO. He also shared information known to him with the Federal Communications Commission and the Securities Commission.
A spokesman for Lavi told the Guardian that the NSO had no dealings with Mobelium. He stressed that the co-founder of the Israeli company categorically denies the facts of unethical and illegal actions. The NSO is not aware of the DOJ investigation and does not use cash as a form of payment, Lavi's spokesman concluded.
Due to the vulnerability of the SS-7 protocol, the governments of a number of countries gained access to telephone conversations and geolocation. Surveillance tools company Circles, an NSO sister company, provided services to Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Vietnam, Guatemala, Honduras, Denmark, Ecuador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Israel, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Morocco, Mexico, Nigeria, UAE, Peru, El Salvador, Serbia, Thailand and Chile. The governments of Saudi Arabia and China are suspected of exploiting the SS7 vulnerability.
The FBI admitted this week that it acquired NSO's Pegasus spyware to test the software. However, the bureau denies using the program as part of investigations and hacking into mobile devices of US citizens, although it has continued to pay for Pegasus since the purchase of a limited license.
Last week, NSO chief Asher Levy announced his departure from the company. Shortly before this, the NSO was at the center of a scandal involving the use of spyware by the Israeli police against protesters and those who disagreed with official government policy. However, Levy assured that he decided to leave the company in the summer of 2021.
bbabo.Net