Israeli technology firm NSO Group, that grabbed world attention, including in India, amid allegations of misuse of its controversial spyware Pegasus, which apparently have a giant presence within the Europe Union with at least 22 contracts covering 12 of 27 member states. The Pegasus spyware and competitive products would make it possible to infect the mobile phone of the victim of the surveillance and later enable the operator to eavesdrop on conversations, read out apps with encrypted messages, and would provide total access to contacts and files on the device.

HIGHLIGHTS
The controversy on spyware Pegasus has a large presence in the Europe Union
EU legislators were tasked to know the identity of NSO customers in Europe
NSO Group claimed that its spyware was used by 'government clients'

The Pegasus spyware permits eavesdropping in real time on what's going down around the mobile phone by operating the camera and microphone.

Representatives of the European Parliament Committee of Inquiry on Pegasus spyware had recently visited Israel and would learn from NSO personnel that the company would have an active contracts with 12 European Union.

Members of the European Parliament Committee of Inquiry had visited to Israel were asked to have been shocked to get contracts with their countries of origin.

In recent weeks, the Committee's representatives have visited Israel in order 'to learn in-depth about the local cyber warfare industry', and a discussions with NSO employees, representatives of the Israeli Defence Ministry and local specialists was held.

Well, among the committee members was a Catalan legislator whose mobile phone got hacked by a NSO customer.

As per the reports, 'the committee was established after the publication of Project Pegasus last year, and its objective was to form pan-European regulations for the acquisition, import and use of cyber warfare software like Pegasus.'

The report even mentioned that 'but whereas committee members were in Israel, and notably since their return to Brussels, therefore, it absolutely was discovered that Europe also has a well-developed cyber warfare industry – and lots of of its customers were European countries.'

The EU legislators were tasked to get the idea about the identity of NSO customers in Europe at the present and were shocked to get that the majority of the EU countries had contracts with the company: in the past 14 countries have done business with NSO and at least 12 were still using Pegasus for lawful interception of mobile calls, as per NSO's response to the committee's queries.

Well, in response to the legislators' queries, the companies have explained that at the present NSO works with 22 “end users” – security and intelligence organisations and law enforcement authorities – in 12 European countries.

In a number of the countries there was more than one consumer as they were with operating organisations. In the past, as per NSO's submission, the company has worked with two further countries with whom the ties have currently been severed. Well, NSO has not disclosed about which countries were active customers and with that two countries the contract got frozen.

Also Read: Rwanda Daughter got Spied on by a Private Spyware, Pegasus