"[22] and that it "[...] has treated NSO as a de facto arm of the state, granting licenses for Pegasus to numerous countries [...] with which the Israeli government hoped to nurture stronger security and diplomatic ties.

[25] Israel, wary of angering the U.S. in the wake of the Snowden revelations, required NSO to prevent Pegasus from targeting American phone numbers.

[29] In 2014, the surveillance firm Circles (which produces is a phone geolocation tool) was acquired by Francisco Partners for $130 million, and thus became a corporate affiliate of NSO's.

[4] On February 14, 2019, Francisco Partners sold a majority (60%) stake of NSO back to co-founders Shalev Hulio and Omri Lavie, who were supported in the purchase by European private equity fund Novalpina Capital[31] which specialises in investments in controversial companies.

[26] Hulio and Lavie invested $100 million, with Novalpina acquiring the remaining portion of the majority stake, thus valuing the company at approximately $1 billion.

[32] The day after the acquisition, Novalpina attempted to address the concerns raised by Citizen Lab with a letter, stating their belief that NSO operates with sufficient integrity and caution.

NSO CEO Shalev Hulio suggested to BRG that the company should improve its financial standing by starting to sell its products to high-risk customers previously deemed unacceptable, responding to objections by joking that missing debt payments was risky too.

[36] Two of the ousted co-founders attempted to reclaim control over Novalpina Capital's assets by filing a lawsuit in Luxemburg, with a U.K. court allowing the case to proceed to trial in April 2022.

The Israeli authorities were reportedly willing to fulfill the latter and reluctant to comply with the former, and also insisted that Israel ultimately retain control over issuing export licences for NSO's products.

[24] In August 2022, Hulio stepped down from his post as CEO, with the company's COO Yaron Shohat temporarily assuming the role until a full-time replacement was to be named.

[39] Hulio's resignation from his post as CEO came amid a restructuring of the company as it attempted to focus on pursuing clients among NATO member countries.

[41] In late 2020, Vice Media published an article in which it reported that NSO Group had closed the Cyprus-based offices of Circles, the company it had acquired in 2014.

[43] Despite this, an article written by The Guardian during the 2021 Pegasus scandal quoted NSO Group as saying that it had been "regulated by the export control regimes of Israel, Cyprus and Bulgaria".

[45] Circles' Bulgarian office, in particular, was stated to have been founded as a "bogus phone company" in 2015 by Citizen Lab citing IntelligenceOnline, a part of Indigo Publications.

[52] In June 2018, an Israeli court indicted a former employee of NSO for allegedly stealing a copy of Pegasus and attempting to sell it online for $50 million worth of cryptocurrency.

[53] In August 2018, the human rights group Amnesty International accused NSO of helping Saudi Arabia spy on a member of the organization's staff.

[8] In April 2020, Motherboard reported about an incident that occurred several years prior in which an NSO employee used a client's Pegasus tool to spy on a love interest (a female personal acquaintance) during a work trip to the UAE.

Sources also told Motherboard that NSO leadership held a meeting to prevent similar incidents in the future, and subsequently adopted more rigorous screening of employees that interact with clients.

[63] In November 2021, the United States added the NSO Group to its Entity List, for acting "contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US" and it effectively bans the sale of hardware and software to the company.

[69] In September 2023, the Citizen Lab attributed with high confidence that an exploit of iOS 16.6 was being used to install Pegasus spyware on Apple devices without user interaction.

[70] NSO Groups offers the smartphone spyware tool Pegasus to government clients for the exclusive intended purpose of combating crime and terrorism.

NSO then launched Phantom for the U.S. market for use on U.S. targets, receiving permission from Israel to develop it as a specialty tool for exclusive use by U.S. governmental agencies.

[72][73] In December 2020, the Citizen Lab reported that Supreme Council on National Security (SCNS) of the United Arab Emirates was set to receive both these systems.

Aside from Israel and the UAE, the report named the governments of Australia, Belgium, Botswana, Chile, Denmark, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Equatorial Guinea, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Peru, Serbia, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe as likely customers of Circles surveillance technology.

[72][73] In September 2021, Forensic News published shipping records showing that in 2020 Circles supplied equipment to Uzbekistan's State Security Service (SGB).

[78] WhatsApp told the Financial Times that "the attack has all the hallmarks of a private company known to work with governments to deliver spyware that reportedly takes over the functions of mobile phone operating systems.

[57] In response to the alleged cyberattack, WhatsApp sued NSO under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and other US laws in a San Francisco court on October 29.

"In April 2020, NSO group blamed its government clients for the hacking of 1,400 WhatsApp users, including journalists and human rights activists.

However, the firm did not disclose the names of the clients which, as Citizen Lab stated, include authorities in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Morocco, and Mexico.

Technical information uncovered by Bill Marczak's team at the lab allowed Apple to warn thousands of its users, including U.S. State Department employees in Uganda.