There have been reports saying that the FBI almost used commercial spyware. As mentioned in Gizmodo, it was to be used for helping with criminal investigations. The spyware mentioned was developed by the NSO Group, a technology firm capable of surveilling smartphones. It has also been with several spying scandals worldwide.
The FBI's Defense Against Purchasing Spyware
It has been reported that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, considered buying a surveillance system. The spyware called "Phantom" was a variant of Pegasus, a malware that was developed by NSO.
The latter system had the ability to hack into mobile devices and monitor their activities. FBI Director Chris Wray was quick to dismiss the privacy concerns, and said that their contact with NSO was for counterintelligence only.
This may mean that they had no plans of unleashing the Pegasus, and that they were only conducting research to determine how it can be used by hackers. Wray also expressed this with congressional leaders, regarding the interest in using the spyware to figure out how threat actors would use it.
There are documents found by the Times that seem to contradict what Wray claimed, which suggests that they are interested in using the spyware themselves. The documents retrieved included a few internal FBI PowerPoint presentations, that were created from 2020 to 2021. It shows discussions about how the spyware could be deployed by the bureau.
There was a memorandum detailing recommendations, for how the hacking tool can be used for certain specific conditions. There are also proposed guidelines included for district attorneys', involving the criminal discoveries that were made possible by the tool.
NSO's Pegasus Spyware
In another report, the FBI actually bought a version of the spyware, according to New York Times. Israeli computer engineers arrived in New Jersey for the FBI. In June 2019, they set up dozens of computer servers in an isolated room, which is located in a building used by the bureau. They then made a call to their bosses, which were located in a Tel Aviv suburb in Herzliya. This was said to be the headquarters for the NSO Group.
The NSO claimed that the surveillance software could do better than any private company or state intelligence services, which is to infiltrate any iPhone or Android phone with encrypted communications. There have been many successful hacks that prove NSO's claims, but not all of them led to good outcomes.
The hacking tool helped with the arrest of the notorious drug lord, El Chapo. European investigators even managed to fight organized crime and bust a global child-abuse ring, which was made possible by Pegasus. It identified several suspects from more than 40 countries around the world.
However, the tool was responsible for many tragedies as well. Pegasus has been used to spy on journalists, activists, and political dissidents. According to a lawsuit filed by a protester in Saudi Arabia, Pegasus was used to spy on Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist under The Washington Post. Khashoggi was killed and dismembered in Istanbul by Saudi operatives, back in 2018.
