NSO Group—NSO Group temporarily froze Pegasus deals with Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi murder scandal in April 2019
In April 2019, NSO Group froze its deals with Saudi Arabia over allegations that NSO software played a role in tracking murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the months before his death. This represented a rare instance of NSO taking action against a client government for potential misuse of its spyware technology. However, reports suggest the suspension was temporary and that Saudi Arabia remained a client.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate Governance | +toward | secondary | +0.50 |
| Surveillance Technology | -against | primary | +1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | +0.322 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (medium ×1) × confidence (0.57)× agency (reactive ×0.75)
Evidence (1 signal)
NSO Group froze Pegasus deals with Saudi Arabia after Khashoggi murder revelations
In April 2019, reports emerged that NSO Group had frozen its deals with Saudi Arabia over allegations that NSO software was used to track journalist Jamal Khashoggi before his murder. This was a rare example of NSO taking action against a client government for potential misuse.