NSO Group

Apple's silicon chips are developed in Israel, the home country of NSO Group, the maker of the Pegasus zero-click spyware. Some online commenters are drawing a critical link between the two facts, suggesting irony or concern that the same country hosts both a major Apple engineering hub and a company known for industrializing commercial smartphone spyware. There is no indication Apple's chip work is connected to NSO Group.

Amnesty International reports that Pegasus spyware was used to target Sahrawi activists and figures connected to the Sahrawi cause. The finding points to surveillance of advocates for Western Sahara's independence, adding to documented cases of the NSO Group's Pegasus tool being deployed against human rights defenders and political figures worldwide.

Amnesty International reports that Israeli-made Pegasus spyware has been deployed in Morocco as part of what the group calls a 'techno-authoritarian' crackdown, targeting critics of the authorities. The findings renew scrutiny of NSO Group's surveillance tools and their use against journalists, activists and dissidents abroad, and raise fresh questions about exports of Israeli spyware to allied governments.