NSO offered US mobile security firm ‘bags of cash’, whistleblower claims

A whistleblower has alleged that an executive at NSO Group offered a US-based mobile security company "bags of cash" in exchange for access to a global signalling network used to track individuals through their mobile phone, according to a complaint that was made to the US Department of Justice.

The allegation, which dates back to 2017 and was made by a former mobile security executive named Gary Miller, was disclosed to federal authorities and to the US congressman Ted Lieu, who said he conducted his own due diligence on the claim and found it "highly disturbing".

Details of the allegation by Miller were then sent in a letter by Lieu to the Department of Justice.

"The privacy implications to Americans and national security implications to America of NSO Group accessing mobile operator signalling networks are vast and alarming," Lieu wrote in his letter.

The letter was shared with the Guardian and other media partners on the Pegasus project, a media consortium led by the Paris-based Forbidden Stories that has investigated NSO and published a series of stories about how governments around the world have used the company's spyware to target activists, journalists, and lawyers, among others.

NSO said it had no business with the mobile security company.

The Guardian and media partners have separately learned that NSO is the subject of an active criminal investigation by the Department of Justice, according to four people familiar with the investigation. The investigation, they claim, is focused on allegations of unauthorised intrusions into networks and mobile devices.