They tried to sell Pegasus for $50 million in anonymous cryptocurrencies

One of the top programmers at NSO Group, the Israeli firm behind the Pegasus iPhone virus, has been arrested for trying to illegally sell top-secret spyware on the dark web for $50 million in cryptocurrency.

As reported by the Times of Israel, the 38-year-old engineer from Netanya was charged with “attempting to damage property and national security, attempting to sell defense material without authorization, theft of intellectual property, and tampering with computer materials.”

While the attempted sale itself was unsuccessful, the incident raises a number of questions about the internal security posture of NSO and other firms whose products like Pegasus could have terrifying potential if they fall into the wrong hands. hands.

According to a report by Israeli news outlet CTech, the suspect knew about the damage that could be caused if Pegasus fell into the hands of strangers, but this did not stop him, as he was about to lose his job at NSO. He connected an external storage device to the company's computers and siphoned information from them. Company representatives noticed his actions and summoned him to a hearing on April 29. After the hearing, for unknown reasons, he was allowed to return to his workplace, where he connected the information drive to the company server and downloaded information that could potentially be used to create a black market version of Pegasus.

The attacker tried to sell the code on the dark web for $50 million in anonymous cryptocurrencies - Monero, Zcash, Verge. Fortunately, the intended buyer was suspicious of the offer and informed NSO that their software was being sold online. It is noteworthy that until that moment, NSO did not even suspect the theft.

The company's press release stated:

“We were quickly able to detect the leak, collect evidence, identify the criminal and share this information with the relevant authorities. They, in turn, responded quickly and effectively - in a short period of time, our former employee was detained, and the stolen property was returned. No information or company materials were transferred to third parties, so all customer information is in security.”

A number of governments around the world are known to use Pegasus to monitor activists.. Pegasus remains attractive as a malware because it is the only virus that combines full surveillance of user activity on iOS with fast installation. According to reports, the program installs itself using an SMS link.

According to ccn.com