NSO tried to buy access to cell networks for “bags of cash,“ whistleblower says
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A whistleblower has accused Pegasus spyware-maker NSO Group of offering "bags of cash" to security company Mobileum in exchange for access to cellular networks in 2017. According to reports yesterday by The Guardian and The Washington Post, former Mobileum VP Gary Miller made his allegations in a complaint to the US Department of Justice and in an interview with news organizations that are part of the Pegasus Project consortium.
Miller alleged that, during the Mobileum/NSO Group meeting, "a member of his own company's leadership at Mobileum asked what NSO believed the 'business model' was of working with Mobileum, since Mobileum did not sell access to the global signalling networks as a product," The Guardian wrote. "According to Miller, and a written disclosure he later made to federal authorities, the response allegedly made by [NSO co-founder Omri] Lavie was 'we drop bags of cash at your office.'"
NSO Group, an Israeli company that was recently blacklisted by the US government, was allegedly seeking access to the SS7 network. Mobileum's various security products include an SS7 firewall, and the company's website warns that "modestly priced access to the SS7 network is now available to hackers on a modest budget."