Article Link: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/11/8/palestinian-rights-activists-hacked-by-israeli-firm-nso-group
Six Palestinians have been hacked by the NSO group located in Israel. The victims of the attacks all were human rights activists. Smaller problems like this one only add to the current ongoing conflict between Palestine and Israel. The NSO firm is a technology company that invented military-grade spyware called, Pegasus. Pegasus was used to spy on the six Palestinians. However, NSO and the Israeli government have not worked together since a few years ago. The timing of the hacks is also interesting as the current crisis is going on. Palestinian government officials are calling this to be a sign of future terrorist attacks, however, there is no true inclusive evidence yet.
NSO is taking matters into their hands. What we know now is that these hacks were not backed by the Israeli government. It may sound hard to believe to some since NSO is using one of the best forms of spyware. I see it as NSO using their own software to help their country and beliefs. It could also be a case of one or a few of the NSO workers taking advantage of Pegasus and using it for themselves. If that was the case then I’m sure the owners of NSO do not know about it. It is unlikely that this problem will turn out to be anything major.
Israel has technology that Palestine has not gained access to yet. Often times it is talked about that some countries have advantages over others in the nuclear field and other military advancements, but the world is turning into a technology-heavy place. Technology can’t harm people directly, but it is dangerous when used to gain information to launch or counter an attack. Trading and selling nukes are similar to doing the same with technology. Technology is a key now to competing in the current world. Countries with developed technology will see success. Countries could start to become desperate for the best technology as it become extremely important.