Beautiful Virgin Islands

Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

French Ex-Diplomat Saw "Potential For Misuse" While Working At Pegasus Maker NSO

French Ex-Diplomat Saw "Potential For Misuse" While Working At Pegasus Maker NSO

At NSO's offices, Gerard Araud discovered something resembling a classic tech start-up: teams of programmers "all between 25-30 years old, in flip-flops, black t-shirts, all with PhDs in computer science..."

Few outsiders are granted access to the ultra-secretive world of NSO Group, the Israeli maker of the Pegasus spyware at the heart of a global phone hacking scandal. Gerard Araud, a former French ambassador, is one of them.

The recently retired diplomat took a position as a consultant to NSO in 2019, advising on human rights, soon after stepping down as France's ambassador to Washington during the tumultuous years of Donald Trump's presidency.

"I took the position because I found it interesting. It was a new world for me," Araud, who also served as French ambassador to Israel in the early 2000s, told AFP by telephone.

At NSO's offices, he discovered something resembling a classic tech start-up: teams of programmers "all between 25-30 years old, in flip-flops, black t-shirts, all with PhDs in computer science..."

His one-year mission from September 2019, along with two other external consultants from the United States, was to look at how the company could improve its human rights record after a host of negative news stories.

Earlier that year, the group's technology had been linked publicly to spying or attempted spying on the murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi Arabian security forces, which it denied.

The group was acquired in 2019 by a London-based private equity group, Novalpina, which hired Araud to recommend ways to make the company's safeguard procedures "more rigorous and a bit more systematic," he said.

Backdoor?


Since Monday, a consortium of media groups including The Washington Post, The Guardian and France's Le Monde newspaper have detailed allegations of how those supposed safeguards were ignored between 2016 and 2021.

Using what they say is a database of 50,000 numbers that were identified for possible hacking using Pegasus, the newspapers have detailed how human rights activists, journalists, opposition politicians and even world leaders appear on the list.

NSO Group has denied such a list exists.

Pegasus is believed to be one of the most powerful mobile phone hacking tools available, enabling clients to secretly read every message of a target, track their location, and even operate their camera and microphone remotely.

Its export is regulated "like an arms sale," said Araud, meaning NSO must seek approval from the Israeli government to sell it, and state clients then sign a lengthy commercial contract stipulating how the product will be used.

They are meant to deploy Pegasus only to tackle organised crime or terrorism -- the company markets itself this way -- but Araud said "you could see all the potential for misuse, even though the company wasn't always responsible."

Did the company have a means to check on the actual deployment of its programme, which some campaigners want banned?

Araud thinks not and said he believes the only leverage the company has after selling Pegasus is to stop offering software updates to clients if they are proven to be violating the terms of the contract.

"It's a small private company, there must be a few dozen employees. I don't think there can be any follow up," he said.

In a firm that practices "a form of extreme secrecy," he says he nonetheless became convinced that NSO Group worked with Israel's Mossad secret services, and possibly with the CIA.

He said there were three Americans who sat on the group's advisory board with links to the US intelligence agency, and the company has said that its technology cannot be used to target US-based numbers.

"There's a question about the presence of Mossad and the CIA. I thought it was both of them, but I have no proof," he said. "But I suspect they're both behind it with what you call a 'backdoor'."

A "backdoor" is a technical term meaning the security services would be able to monitor the deployment of Pegasus and possibly the intelligence gathered as a result.

Israel has denied having access to information from Pegasus.

Araud, an active user of Twitter, has faced criticism online for his decision to work for a company with alleged linked to human rights abuse.

"I have nothing to hide," he said. "I have no regrets."

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
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
×