Israel Bans Sales of Hacking and Surveillance Tools

guest · Dec 6, 2021

November 25, 2021

Israel's Ministry of Defense has dramatically restricted the number of countries to which cybersecurity firms in the country are allowed to sell offensive hacking and surveillance tools to, cutting off 65 nations from the export list.

The revised list, details of which were first reported by the Israeli business newspaper Calcalist, now only includes 37 countries, down from the previous 102:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US.
Click to expand...

Notably missing from the list are countries such as Morocco, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the U.A.E, which have been previously identified as customers of Israeli spyware vendor NSO Group. In curtailing the exports, the move effectively makes it harder for local cybersecurity firms to market their software to countries with totalitarian regimes or with a track record of perpetrating human rights abuses.
Click to expand...

The move comes close on the heels of the U.S. Commerce Department adding NSO Group and Candiru to its trade blocklist for developing and supplying sophisticated interception or intrusion capabilities to foreign governments that then used the spy tools to strike journalists, activists, dissidents, academics, and government officials across the world.
Click to expand...

Log in or Sign up

Israel Bans Sales of Hacking and Surveillance Tools

guest Guest

Log in or Sign up

Israel Bans Sales of Hacking and Surveillance Tools

guest Guest

Useful Searches