Because Things Just Aren’t Dystopian Enough, Blacklisted Spyware Firm NSO Group Has Just Been Purchased By A Hollywood Producer

from the cool-cool-cool dept

2025 has delivered almost nothing but bad news. Here’s more of that, as first reported by Israeli press outlet, Calcalist:

Control of NSO Group is set to leave Israeli hands. A group of American investors led by Hollywood producer Robert Simonds has agreed to acquire the controversial spyware developer in a deal valued at several tens of millions of dollars. The transaction is expected to be signed in the coming days, though its completion will require approval from Israel’s Defense Export Control Agency (DECA) at the Ministry of Defense.

One of the last things this country needs is domestic ownership of a spyware firm best known for its cozy relationship with human rights violators and a 36-month run of negative press following the discovery that its flagship product (Pegasus) had been used to target dissidents, political opponents, ex-wives of Saudi princes, lawyers, religious leaders, journalists, and human rights activists.

Robert Simonds’ name first popped up in “what will become of the world’s most reviled tech firm” discussions in 2023, where he was warned away from this potential investment by none other than the presidential administration at that time. NSO Group had been blacklisted only months earlier and its attempt to get the FBI to buy its products had collapsed when it was made clear there was no way the FBI could use it against Americans and still expect to be on the right side of the US Constitution.

No one will be warning Simonds away from this purchase now. This entire administration has no desire to be on the right side of the Constitution and seems extremely willing to get it hands on anything that might allow it to keep tabs on its critics and opponents, not to mention millions of non-white people it thinks should be immediately ejected from this country.

Simonds is riding to the rescue of an administration that definitely can’t be trusted with this sort of malware. It’s one thing to point out that selling to human rights violators will inevitably result in abusive deployments that violate more rights. It’s quite another to be on the inside of impending doom, realizing that this administration is no better than those that NSO was correctly criticized for selling its products to. With this acquisition, NSO becomes a domestic firm (more or less… see below) and far more likely to be taken off the State Department’s blacklist.

That doesn’t just mean US citizens are now ripe for the malware-driven picking if the Trump administration clears NSO’s offerings for domestic surveillance. It also means the human rights violators of the world will again be given access to this tech, after being (temporarily) added to the “DO NOT SELL TO THESE COUNTRIES” list by the Israeli government. The world will become a worse place to live, thanks to the supposed “leader of the free world,” which is now led by people who don’t actually believe in freedom.

It’s safe to assume that anything NSO did to retain market viability in a world that was mostly unified in its hatred against it will get rolled back now that it belongs to a Hollywood mogul and safely resides in a country run by aspiring autocrats. During Trump’s first administration, we often felt assured cooler heads would prevail. But during this second term, the “cooler” heads are returning to room temperature after having been hoisted on pikes by an administration that has made a concerted, often-illegal effort to rid itself of anyone or anything that might slow its roll towards fully consummating its relationship with white Christian nationalism.

And while this might look like something that might prevent an immediate return to full-blown evil by NSO Group, you have to consider the source of the statement:

“This investment does not mean that the company is moving out of Israeli regulatory or operational control,” said [NSO spokesperson Oded] Hershowitz. “The company’s headquarters and core operations remain in Israel. It continues to be fully supervised and regulated by the relevant Israeli authorities, including the Ministry of Defense and the Israeli regulatory framework.” 

Yeah, that means some operational control will be nominally overseen by a government engaged in genocide whose leader is one of Trump’s BFFs. Both figures who could plausibly restrain abuses by NSO of its customers are in agreement: Palestinians are all terrorists and anyone opposing either government involved here is also a terrorist. Can’t wait to see how that works out on a phone-to-phone level.

Filed Under: authoritarian, mass surveillance, robert simonds, spyware, trump administration

Companies: nso group