The chief executive of Israeli spyware firm NSO Group is stepping down as part of a corporate restructuring to focus on doing business with NATO countries, the company said in a statement on Sunday.
The restructuring comes after the US government blacklisted NSO Group last November over the spyware Pegasus. When announcing its blacklisting, the Biden administration said the NSO group had acted “contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”
The move comes after a coalition of news outlets last July banned American companies from doing business with Israeli companies, prompting the government to target journalists, dissidents and opposition parties from countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Mexico. We have received reports of using Pegasus to target politicians. .
NSO Group Chief Executive Officer and one of the three co-founders, Shalev Hulio, said:
Pegasus can covertly and remotely extract everything from your mobile phone: messages, photos, videos, contacts, etc. without users clicking on phishing links to provide access. It can also turn your mobile phone into a listening and tracking device.
NSO Group says it sells spyware to law enforcement and intelligence agencies to help prevent crime and terrorism.
NSO Group COO Yaron Shohat will lead the company and manage the reorganization until Julio’s successor is found, the company said.
This isn’t the first time Julio has stepped down from the top job. He resigned late last year and was replaced by his Isaac Benbenisti, co-president of NSO. But Benvenisti resigned less than two weeks after the NSO group was added to the US blacklist.