NSO Group: Under Watch Names Revealed

February 7, 2022

I noted the Calcalist article “No One Was Immune: Israel Police Pegasus Surveillance List Revealed.” The downstream consequences of the NSO Group’s MBA-infused approach to specialized software and services continue to become visible.

This passage refers to Israel; however, it is a thought starter:

The bland term used by police for these activities was “technological and data oriented policing,” but Calcalist reveals that the use of Pegasus wasn’t local or limited to a small number of cases. This became one of the most useful tools implemented by police to gather intelligence. Special operations members of the police’s cyber-SIGINT unit have been penetrating the phones of citizens secretly and without judicial warrants, taking control of them with Pegasus against the law and with the understanding that judges wouldn’t approve such activity.

I want to reiterate that the old-school specialized software and services vendors focus their efforts on direct contacts with government agencies and/or attending limited or restricted attendance conferences. As the number of firms tapping open source and proprietary methods to gain access to certain data streams increased, the need for MBA-type marketing exponentiated.

A return to more traditional methods would be a refreshing change. Who is to blame? I think the entrepreneurs who create specialized software and services firms are prime movers. However, the enablers are the entities which fund these often young go-getters bear some responsibility. Blaming under funded, understaffed, and under equipped government professionals may be warranted under some circumstances.

My view is that an engineer chock full of MBA-isms should be licensed prior to hanging out a shingle, signing up for a trade show stand, and generating buzz via news releases and social media posts on LinkedIn.

Until then, the knock ons from the NSO Group’s global visibility are likely to hold some surprises. Do you like surprises? I don’t too much.

Stephen E Arnold, February 7, 2022

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under intelware, News

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.