Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Oct 06, 2025

CEO of Israeli NSO spyware company steps down amid shakeup

CEO of Israeli NSO spyware company steps down amid shakeup

The CEO of Israeli spyware firm NSO Group, which has been accused of selling software allowing repressive governments to secretly eavesdrop on their critics, has stepped down as part of an internal reshuffle, the company said Sunday.
NSO co-founder and longtime chief executive Shalev Hulio was replaced by Yaron Shohat, previously the chief operating officer, while the surveillance firm’s board searches for a new CEO, according to the statement.

NSO has been mired in a global backlash and legal action over its alleged sales of Pegasus software to governments and other clients, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Hungary and India. The software has been used to spy on political activists, embassy employees, human rights advocates, journalists and even at least one president.

NSO has denied any wrongdoing in the licensing of its technologies. The company says it sells its military-grade spyware to a secret list of government clients to stop criminals, terrorists and pedophiles.

The company said Sunday that Hulio’s resignation was part of a broader reorganization aimed at focusing sales to members of NATO, the Western military alliance. The company also fired around 100 of its 700 employees.

The firm “will examine all aspects of its business, including streamlining its operations to ensure NSO remains one of the world’s leading high-tech cyber intelligence companies,” it said in a statement.

Last year investors warned that the company risked defaulting on its debt.

While NSO is privately owned, Israel’s Defense Ministry must preapprove any export of cyberwarfare technologies. Critics say Israel’s political interests influenced Pegasus sales to governments with long track records of human rights abuses.

Washington blacklisted NSO in November for acting “contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests” of the United States.

The move followed an investigation by a consortium of news organizations, including The Washington Post, showing how foreign governments used the spyware to hack journalists and activists, among them American citizens.

Pegasus spyware was used to hack the phone of Spain’s president while other world leaders, including French President Emmanuel Macron, have been found on lists of possible targets.

The spyware also secretly targeted the smartphones of the wife and fiancee of murdered Saudi dissident and Washington Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi, an investigation by The Post last year found.

Both WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, and Apple have filed lawsuits against NSO Group for using their services to hack users.

In April, the European Parliament set up a committee to investigate Pegasus and “whether this use has breached E.U. law and fundamental rights.”

Hulio co-founded NSO Group in 2010, after he and his partner, Omri Lavie, said they were encouraged by law enforcement to turn their then-small company that did troubleshooting for smartphones by remotely accessing the devices into something bigger.

In July 2021, Hulio defended his company, telling The Post that “all we hear is this campaign that we are violating human rights,” while he knew but could not disclose “how much life has been saved globally because of our technology.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
×