Israel blocked Ukraine from buying Pegasus spyware, fearing Russia’s anger

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Israel, Fearing Russian Reaction, Blocked Spyware for Ukraine and Estonia (Published 2022)

The Eastern European countries had sought to buy Pegasus, spyware made by an Israeli firm, to carry out intelligence operations against Russia, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

www.nytimes.com

KYIV, Ukraine — The Israeli government rejected requests from Ukraine and Estonia in recent years to purchase and use Pegasus — the powerful spyware tool — to hack Russian mobile phone numbers, according to people with knowledge of the discussions.

Israel feared that selling the cyberweapon to adversaries of Russia would damage Israel’s relationship with the Kremlin, they said.

Both Ukraine and Estonia had hoped to buy Pegasus to gain access to Russian phones, presumably as part of intelligence operations targeting their increasingly menacing neighbor in the years before Russia carried out its invasion of Ukraine.

But Israel’s Ministry of Defense refused to grant licenses to NSO Group, the company that makes Pegasus, to sell to Estonia and Ukraine if the goal of those nations was to use the weapon against Russia. The decisions came after years of Israel providing licenses to foreign governments that used the spyware as a tool of domestic repression.