NSO Group Founded in Israel to Develop Pegasus Spyware

NSO Group Technologies is founded in Israel by three former members of Unit 8200 (Israel’s signals intelligence unit): Niv Karmi, Omri Lavie, and Shalev Hulio. The company name “NSO” is derived from the first names of the three founders. Niv Karmi departs the company just one month after its inception, leaving Hulio and Lavie to develop what would become the world’s most notorious commercial spyware: Pegasus.

NSO Group positions itself as providing “lawful intercept” technology exclusively to government intelligence and law enforcement agencies for combating terrorism and serious crime. The company’s Pegasus spyware is capable of remote zero-click surveillance of smartphones, allowing complete access to a target’s device including messages, emails, photos, location data, and even activation of cameras and microphones.

The founding of NSO Group marks the beginning of the commercial spyware industry’s transformation into a multi-billion dollar sector that would enable authoritarian surveillance worldwide. Unit 8200 veterans would become central to Israel’s cyber-intelligence export industry, leveraging military-grade surveillance capabilities for commercial applications.