Threat Management

Cyber experts skeptical of reduced spyware use amid NSO Group reorganization

Deployment of NSO Group spyware in covert cyber espionage operations is unlikely to be deterred by major reorganization efforts by the Israeli spyware vendor, reports CyberScoop. NSO Group's moves to replace its CEO and layoff nearly a hundred of its 700 employees will not solve the absence of accountability, according to Claudio Guarnieri, who leads Amnesty Internationals Security Lab, which has helped expose the surveillance activities facilitated by NSO Group's spyware. "The piling discoveries of unlawful surveillance of activists, journalists and other members of civil society show a rotten mercenary spyware industry, and a moratorium of their sales is as urgent now as ever," said Guarnieri. Citizen Lab Senior Researcher John Scott-Railton has also expressed similar skepticism regarding the reorganization's effect on curtailing spyware use, noting that the company's customers would still continue malicious activity. However, sanctions that have been imposed upon NSO Group may discourage other spyware vendors from selling their tech, Scott-Railton added.

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