TEL AVIV – Israeli technology company NSO Group was in the spotlight when it was revealed that its software products would have been used to hack WhatsApp and spy on Android and iOS phones.
The spy program developed by NSO Group can gain access to user data from Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon and Microsoft servers, writes The Financial Times.
While the Israeli firm has consistently rejected allegations of hacking or spying, it has never denied the development of such technologies, raising many questions among the experts.
According to The Financial Times, infected smartphones would provide the NSO Pegasus spy program with data on authentication passwords for Google Drive, Facebook Messenger, and iCloud cloud services. With this technology, Pegasus would be able to circumvent 2-step authentication and e-mail notification. Users would not be notified of suspicious activity.
Some information security experts have doubts about the effectiveness of the Pegasus spy program, but representatives from Amazon and Facebook have pledged to investigate and enforce security measures in their cloud services, if necessary.
In May of this year it was discovered that WhatsApp had been targeted by the Israeli company NSO, according to Forbes magazine.
This discovery comes as an Israeli cyber security company announced hypocritically last month that state-backed hackers in China have carried out acts of espionage and other cyber crimes, without providing any evidence of course.
According to the company, hackers were aimed at getting relevant information about a number of important people around the world.
Following an investigation that lasted almost a year, the Israeli company Cybereason announced on June 25 that several “state-sponsored opponents” have used private infrastructure companies around the world to carry out “espionage and state-sponsored cyber warfare.”
The investigation revealed that hackers have managed to sneak into the computer network of mobile operators and obtain a certain number of data, including usernames, passwords, billing information and phone call records.
According to The Times of Israel, the people targeted include individuals in government, police and political positions.