Report: U.S. used front company to buy Israeli spyware
According to a report in the New York Times, the Biden administration is using NSO’s ‘Landmark,’ a geolocation system that reveals the location of a person by inputting their phone number
This article originally appeared on Haaretz, and was reprinted here with permission. Sign up here to get Haaretz’s free Daily Brief newsletter delivered to your inbox.
The United States government is an active client of the Israeli offensive cyber firm NSO Group, known for its infamous Pegasus spyware, according to a report by the New York Times.
The Times’ investigation, published early Monday, revealed that five days after the Biden administration announced the blacklisting of NSO for activities contrary to the United States’ national security or foreign policy interests, the U.S. purchased a different software from NSO via a front company.
The software is known as “Landmark,” a geolocation system that reveals the exact location of a person by inputting their phone number.
The report comes one week after U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order banning the use of commercial spyware by the American government. The ban applies to “operational” use that pose a “risk” to American national security, specifically counterintelligence.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO