Software Development (Israel Market)

2021: Stop exporting hacker tools and surveillance software to Russia and other countries

Update: an error was made in the article - it was originally written that we are talking about restricting the export of all IB products from Israel. In fact, this only affected tools for hacking and espionage (surveillance and hacking tools). TAdviser editors apologize for the inaccuracy.

On November 25, 2021, Israel reduced the number of countries to which local companies can export hacker tools and surveillance software, similar to those developed by NSO Group Technologies. The US Department of Commerce imposed sanctions on this company. This was reported by Calcalist.^[1]

The number of countries decreased from 102 to 37. The updated list includes, Austria,, Italy,, Iceland,, Ireland,, Estonia,, Bulgaria,, Belgium,, Great Britain Germany Denmark Netherlands Greece Luxembourg Liechtenstein Latvia,, Lithuania,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Malta and Norway Slovenia Slovakia Spain Portugal Finland The Czech. France Croatia Cyprus Romania Sweden Switzerland Australia India is not Japan New Zealand South Korea USA Canada mentioned in the updated list Russia.

Israel has stopped exporting hacker tools and surveillance software to Russia and other countries

The updated list also does not include countries such as Morocco, Mexico, Saudi Arabia or the UAE, which are reportedly among the countries that purchased software from NSO. The company did not confirm with which countries it conducted business, but stated that it sold only to countries approved by the Ministry of Defense. Assuming that this claim is true, it seems that Israel has been very lenient in granting permits for the sale of cyber tools and was aware of all sales made by NSO.

Although the Israeli government has not officially stated that it limits the number of countries to which Israeli firms can export their hacking and espionage software due to US sanctions, it is unlikely that this is a coincidence that some of those who are not on the updated list are the same countries that are known to have used NSO software.

According to Calcalist, as of 2021, the IB industry in Israel is $10 billion per year. About 10% of them come from solutions for hacking and espionage.^[2]

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