An employee spying company suspected of selling malware to monitor iPhones – Computer – News

A former employee of Israeli security company NSO Group is suspected of stealing software to monitor target iPhones in detail. The suspect wanted to sell the tool on darknets.

He asked for $ 50 million in cryptocurrency for NSO Group's Pegasus tool. This Israeli company is a supplier of digital weapons. The suspect worked in the company as a developer and the NSO group considered dismissing him. The man, probably out of dissatisfaction, managed to bypass security to get the code out of the company, Motherboard writes on the basis of the indictment.

With the source code that he stole, the full functioning of the system could be traced, according to the NSO group. The company should have feared for its survival if the sale was successful, according to the statement. The suspect tried to carry code on the darknets, but a potential buyer contacted NSO Group to report the situation, after which they found the employee and kept him.

Among others, Mexico and the United Arab Emirates Pegasus would be fighting against dissidents, civil rights activists and journalists. After clicking on a link, the tool can juggle iPhones and install software to monitor communications from iMessage, Gmail, WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram and Skype, according to Citizen Lab.