French President Emmanuel Macron is calling for an investigation. This as NSO Group’s parent company gets liquidated.
the setbacks for NSO Group continues to pile up. The malware vendor was already dealt a blow in court over the lawsuit filed by Whatsapp. Then, after a major leak about who was possible targets of the malware, Amazon shut down accounts associated with NSO Group.
Now, we are learning that things continue to deteriorate for the company. NSO Group’s parent company, Novalpina Capital, will soon be in liquidation. From Money Control:
London-based private equity firm Novalpina Capital that holds a majority stake in the spyware firm NSO Group will be dissolved after a months-long dispute between its partners, Sky News reported. The management of the assets of the firm are reportedly taken over by a third party and the manager of its fund has been removed.
Meanwhile, the dissolution of Novalpina isn’t directly connected to the NSO controversy although Sky News report said citing insiders that it could impact the future ownership of such a “controversial business”. Such revelations can make it difficult for the UK company to sell the NSO stake.
Meanwhile, French president, Emmanual Macron, is pushing for an investigation into NSO Group. As you might recall, Macron was potentially a target according to earlier reports. It would appear that being a possible target of malware might be kind of annoying to world leaders – or anyone for that matter. From The Guardian:
Emmanuel Macron has reportedly spoken to the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, to ensure that the Israeli government is “properly investigating” allegations that the French president could have been targeted with Israeli-made spyware by Morocco’s security services.
In a phone call, Macron expressed concern that his phone and those of most of his cabinet could have been infected with Pegasus, hacking software developed by the Israeli surveillance firm NSO Group, which enables operators of the tool to extract messages, photos and emails, record calls and secretly activate microphones from infected devices.
The leaked database at the heart of the Pegasus project includes Macron’s mobile phone number.
You can almost get a sense that SS NSO Group is taking on water at this point. It really wouldn’t be surprising if more setbacks continue to get added to the list.
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
