The United States has included in its federal “blacklist” the Pegasus and Predator spywares of the Israeli NSO Group and Intellexa companies, respectively, which were recently mentioned in publications about targeting the phones of Armenia’s officials, reported the VOA Armenian Service.
It is known that at least 12 public figures of Armenia were targeted by the Israeli Pegasus program. It became known especially as a result of Amnesty International’s report. This prestigious international organization had joined the Pegasus Project initiative, which unites many representatives of the political society and the media field. The goal was to identify and prevent the use of Pegasus and other spyware by Israeli digital security firm NSO Group.
Recently, it became known that two other spyware companies, including Intellexa, were blacklisted by the US government. Being on such a list implies restrictions on cooperation with American companies.
According to Amnesty International, traces of the Predator spyware were found in Armenia’s server infrastructure. The program was developed by the company Intellexa. The report had presented the opinion of Meta security researchers that the likely client of the use of Predator is from Armenia, and further investigation is needed to clarify on whom and for what purpose it was used.
Source : News.am
