The US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Industry and Security announced on Wednesday the inclusion of the Israeli company "NSO", which developed the controversial "Pegasus" spyware program, on the "black list" of companies with which it is prohibited.
The Israeli company and three other companies were included in the list for "activities contrary to the national security interests or the foreign policy of the United States."
Under the resolution, "it is prohibited to import, export, or transfer the company's products from one organization to another within the United States."
In a statement, the ministry said it found evidence that the listed companies "developed and provided spyware to foreign governments that used it to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businessmen, activists, academics and embassy personnel."
These programs also helped it "exercise cross-border repression...by targeting dissident regimes, journalists, and activists outside their sovereign borders to silence dissent" and described these practices as "threatening the rules-based international order."
Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo emphasized the United States' "commitment" to "vigorously using export controls to hold companies that develop technologies to conduct malicious activities that threaten the cybersecurity of civil society members, dissidents, government officials, and organizations" to account.
An investigation published by 17 international media outlets showed that the Pegasus program allowed spying on at least 180 journalists, 600 political figures, 85 human rights activists and 65 company owners in several countries.
In October 2019, WhatsApp filed a lawsuit against the developer, accusing it of helping government spies hack the phones of nearly 1,400 users on four continents.
The company says the software is a sophisticated "eavesdropping" system used to collect data from the mobile devices of suspected criminals or terrorists, and it only authorizes its use for government intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
A source previously told Reuters that the company does business with 45 countries, but has refused to do business with 90 other countries due to concerns about human rights issues.
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