The attempts by the American defense contractor L3 Harris to purchase the Pegasus spying and hacking tech from a blackballed Israeli company were supported by the US government authorities. The controversial spyware company, NSO Group, was placed on the government’s no-buy list during the tenure of the Joe Biden administration due to its actions intervening in privacy.

Hacking into the phones of political leaders, human rights activists, and journalists worldwide has been implemented with the aid of Pegasus by governments worldwide.

The defense contractor L3 Harris, who has previous experience in spyware technology, cited support from intelligence officials in its proposition to purchase the Israeli spyware company, according to NY Times. 

A team of executives from L3 Harris has secretly visited Israel multiple times in recent months to purchase NSO Group, even though Washington has positioned it on a “blacklist” for the abuse of military-grade malware known as Pegasus for espionage operations, the report said.