The chief executive of the Israeli spyware company NSO Group is stepping down as part of a corporate reorganisation to focus on business with member countries of Nato, the company said in a statement on Sunday.

The reorganisation comes after the US government blacklisted the NSO Group last November over its spyware Pegasus.

When announcing the blacklisting, the Biden administration said that NSO Group had acted “contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”

The move, which barred American companies from doing any business with the Israeli firm, followed reports by a coalition of news organizations last July that governments used Pegasus to target journalists, dissidents and opposition politicians in countries including Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Mexico.

“The company is reorganizing to prepare for its next phase of growth,” said Shalev Hulio, NSO Group’s chief executive and one of its three co-founders.

Pegasus can covertly and remotely extract everything from mobile phones — including messages, photos, videos and contacts — without users having to click on a phishing link to provide access.

It also can turn a mobile phone into a listening and tracking device. NSO Group says it sells its spyware to law enforcement and intelligence agencies to help to prevent crime and terrorism.

New York Times News Service