A phone with computer code. (Getty)
WASHINGTON — While the exact number is likely classified, the head of the US government’s dedicated counterintelligence organization said that by now “nearly 100” nations have purchased advanced spyware designed to crack into cellphones, “and they’re using it.”
“I think what you see is an increasing number of countries investing in spyware, frankly, specifically targeted at cellphones and all that things we carry around with us and put information on,” said Michael Casey, head of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center (NCSC). “Everyone knows about the NSO Group, but there are dozens of these companies.”
Casey said the tech is increasingly available not only to governments, but to non-state actors like criminal and ransomware groups — “whoever wants to use it and get on your phone.”
“And so this is an increasing threat, and [it’s] increasingly easy for people to use. Some of these products are plug and play,” he said in a Tuesday webinar put on by the Intelligence and National Security Alliance.
NSO Group, an Israeli software developer, was blacklisted by the US government in 2021 “based on evidence that” it was among entities that “developed and supplied spyware to foreign governments that used these tools to maliciously target government officials, journalists, businesspeople, activists, academics, and embassy workers,” according to the Commerce Department. (In 2022, NSO Group defended itself in part by arguing that “cyber intelligence technologies are necessary to address international threats of terrorism and other serious crimes” and said that while it has no visibility into how its customers use its product, the company “has terminated contracts when a misuse by the customers was found.”)
But as Casey said, NSO Group is hardly the only player in town. Casey said the spyware market is a “huge growth business.”
“There’s a reason why there are dozens of companies selling this product now. It’s very profitable for a lot of them,” he said.
Casey’s estimation that nearly 100 countries have purchased some form of cellphone spyware suggests the market has grown a bit since April 2023 when Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (another NCSC) said more than 80 capitals had acquired the tech.
“For dozens of states without a skills base, the commercial sector is almost certainly transformational, allowing cost-effective access to capability that would otherwise take decades to develop,” the UK NCSC’s said in a report then. “While these tools have been used by states against law enforcement targets, spyware has almost certainly been used by some states in the targeting of journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents and opponents and foreign government officials. This is almost certainly happening at scale, with thousands of individuals targeted each year.”
