New Delhi: The embattled Israeli cybertech firm, NSO Group, had offered “bags of cash” to a US mobile security company in exchange for access to global mobile networks, as per documents submitted by a whistleblower to the US Department of Justice.
The Washington Post and The Guardian, members of the Pegasus Project investigative consortium, reported on Tuesday on the Israeli firm’s latest troubles with the US government. In November 2021, the US government had blacklisted the NSO Group for “malicious cyber activities”.
Last year, the Pegasus Project – a consortium of news organisations, including The Wire – had revealed that NSO’s military-grade spyware Pegasus, sold only to governments, was used to target government critics, including those in India.
The latest whistleblower allegations, dating back to 2017, have been made by a former mobile phone security executive, Gary Miller, who contacted US federal authorities and Democrat Congressman Ted Lieu.
“The mobile-phone security expert Gary Miller alleges that the offer came during a conference call in August 2017 between NSO Group officials and representatives of his employer at the time, Mobileum, a California-based company that provides security services to cellular companies worldwide,” wrote The Washington Post.
The Israeli firm’s officials sought access to the SS7 network, which helps cellular companies route calls and services while users travel across the world.
“Surveillance companies try to access cellular communication networks to geolocate targets and provide other spying services. Cellular companies seek to prevent such intrusions by restricting access to the SS7 network and using firewalls to block computer queries that seek personal information on their customers,” The Post explained.
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Miller, interviewed by Guardian, Washington Post and Paris-based journalism watchdog Forbidden Stories, stated that two of NSO’s co-founders, Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, had attended the web voice call with Mobileum. NSO had wanted to “enhance the capabilities of their surveillance software”, Miller recalled.
“They stated explicitly that their product was designed for surveillance and it was designed to surveil not the good guys but the bad guys,” Miller said, as quoted by The Guardian.
NSO also conveyed that their work was authorised by government agencies but didn’t identify them.
During the meeting, a Mobileum executive asked about NSO’s “business model” for working with the US company, as the latter did not sell access to the global signalling networks as a product.
“According to Miller, and a written disclosure he later made to federal authorities, the response allegedly made by Lavie was “we drop bags of cash at your office”,” The Guardian reported.
A few later in 2017, Miller submitted an anonymous ‘tip’ to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in which he reported details of the conversation with NSO. But, he did not hear anything back.
In a statement, NSO said that it had “never done any business with this company [Mobileum]”. “We are not aware of any DoJ investigation. In addition, NSO does not do business using cash as a form of payment. Any suggestion otherwise demonstrates a profound lack of understanding about our company,” it said.
Lavie denied having made that remark. “No business was undertaken with Mobileum,” a spokesperson said. “Mr Lavie has no recollection of using the phrase ‘bags of cash’, and believes he did not do so. However if those words were used they will have been entirely in jest.” Hulio did not respond to a questionnaire.
Another participant of the 2017 conference call, Eran Gorev, then operating partner for Francisco Partners, an investment firm that had a controlling interest in the NSO Group, also failed to recall the contents or the encounter. “If such a meeting actually took place, I would absolutely never make a comment like this. If someone else made that comment, it would clearly have been made in jest and a colloquial expression / cultural misunderstanding.”
The US firm responded that it “does not have – and has never had – any business relationship with NSO Group”.
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“Mobileum takes the data privacy of its customers information very seriously and has implemented a robust cybersecurity program to prevent any breaches. Mobileum does not have any direct access to the customer’s network and is unable to provide any kind of access, including SS7 access, to any third party,” said the company in a statement.
The Pegasus Project media partners have learned that the Department of Justice is actively probing the NSO Group on allegations of unauthorised intrusions into networks and mobile devices.
The Guardian quoted an anonymous US citizen who said that they had been interviewed at length by US authorities about the 2021 hacking incident, when security researchers had found that her phone had been compromised.
The DoJ also interviewed Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui, whose phone was hacked with Pegasus.
“According to another person familiar with the criminal investigation, the DoJ has also been in contact with a company whose users are alleged to have been targeted by clients of NSO using Pegasus spyware,” the Guardian reported.
The DOJ refused to comment.
After leaving Mobileum, Miller is working as a mobile security researcher with the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. In June 2021, he filed a whistleblower complaint to authorities at the DoJ, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Communications Commission.
He then shared his letter with Lieu in December 2021. Lieu shared redacted copies of Miller’s disclosures with Forbidden Stories, which shared them with members of the Pegasus Project.
“It just looks really fishy, and it doesn’t smell right, and that’s why I want the Department of Justice to investigate,” Lieu told the Pegasus Project.