The FBI has confirmed that it obtained NSO Group’s powerful Pegasus spyware, suggesting that it bought access to the Israeli surveillance tool to “stay abreast of emerging technologies and tradecraft”.
In a statement, the bureau said it had procured a “limited licence” to access Pegasus for “product testing and evaluation only”, and suggested that its evaluation of the tool partly related to security concerns if the spyware fell into the “wrong hands”.
The bureau also claimed it had never used Pegasus in support of any FBI investigation. “There was no operational use in support of any investigation, the FBI procured a limited licence for product testing and evaluation only,” it said.
The FBI’s procurement of Pegasus, which occurred in 2019 under the Trump administration, was first reported by the New York Times. It was a stunning revelation in part because the Biden administration has recently placed NSO on a commerce department blacklist.
The Guardian and other media organisations have reported multiple cases in which security researchers said governments have used NSO’s tools to target American citizens around the world.
Once deployed, the user of Pegasus spyware can take control of a person’s phone, accessing messages, intercepting phone calls and using the phone as a remote listening device.
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