The FBI confirms that it bought the Pegasus espionage program, although it denies that it used it

Photograph of a smartphone with the logo of the company NSO, owner of the Pegasus spy program.JOEL SAGET (AFP)

The Federal Investigation Agency (FBI) has confirmed that it acquired and tested the Pegasus spyware from the Israeli technology company NSO, but denies using it in any investigation, as its sole purpose was to have it in order to be aware of Emerging technologies.

The

of the surveillance company has been surrounded by controversy after learning that fifty governments, several of them autocratic, have used it to control dissidents and journalists, according to an international investigation released in 2021. Following that complaint, the Department of the The United States Treasury included NSO last year in the black list of companies vetoed in public contracts.

The revelation was published in July 2019 by

, among other international media, and was based on the leak of a list of 50,000 phone numbers identified as potential targets since 2016 by NSO clients, although not all of them. they had been infected.

Among the states that used the NSO program, according to the disclosures, were Mexico, Hungary, Morocco, India, Saudi Arabia, Rwanda and Azerbaijan.

The Guardian

revealed that the FBI purchased the program in 2019 under then-President Donald Trump's administration.

"The program was not used to assist in any investigation, but the FBI acquired the limited license solely to test and evaluate the product," says a statement sent to the British newspaper.

The document indicates that the intention was to test the program to evaluate the security problems that could result from the fact that the

"falls into the wrong hands".

According to

this is “a stunning revelation, in part because the Biden administration recently placed NSO on a Commerce Department blacklist, saying it had evidence that the company’s hacking tools had allowed governments to from around the world to carry out a

, targeting dissidents and journalists,”

The acquisition came after lengthy negotiations between US officials and the NSO company.

Sources familiar with the matter have explained that after the purchase, the FBI did not use the program, but continued to pay for access and extended its license.

“The FBI works diligently to stay abreast of emerging technologies and their trade, not only to explore potential legal use, but also to fight crime and protect both the American people and our civil liberties,” the FBI statement says. .

That means we routinely identify, evaluate and test technical solutions and problems for a variety of reasons, including the possibility that falling into the wrong hands could cause problems.

"There was no operational use in support of any investigation, the FBI obtained a limited license only for product testing and evaluation," the statement ends.

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