Hacking Lawyers or Journalists Is Totally Fine, Says Notorious Cyberweapons Firm

The founder and CEO of NSO Group, the notorious Israeli hacking company with customers around the world, appeared on CBS's 60 Minutes Sunday night to defend the use of his company's tools in hacking and spying on lawyers, journalists, and minors when the country's customers determine the ends justify the means. From a report: NSO Group has reportedly sold hacking tools to dictators including those in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and across Central Asia -- a group of decision-makers whose track record includes numerous examples of human rights abuses and oppression of dissent. NSO's tools have been directly involved in the arrest of human rights activists and, in Mexico at least, spying on lawyers and journalists in an effort to catch the drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman. 'In order to catch El Chapo, for example, they had to intercept a journalist, an actress, and a lawyer,' NSO Group founder Shalev Hulio told 60 minutes. 'Now, by themselves, they are not criminals, right? But if they are in touch with a drug lord and in order to catch them, you need to intercept them, that's a decision an intelligence agency should get.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.