this article originally appeared in the new york timesit is widely regarded as the worlds most potent spyware capable of reliably cracking the encrypted communications of iphone and android smartphonesthe software pegasus made by an israeli company nso group has been able to track terrorists and drug cartels it has also been used against human rights activists journalists and dissidentsnow an investigation published friday by the new york times magazine has found that israel which controls the export of the spyware just as it does the export of conventional weapons has made pegasus a key component of its national security strategy using it to advance its interests around the worldthe yearlong investigation by ronen bergman and mark mazzetti also reports that the fbi bought and tested nso software for years with plans to use it for domestic surveillance until the agency finally decided last year not to deploy the toolsthe times found that sales of pegasus played a critical role in securing the support of arab nations in israels campaign against iran and negotiating the abraham accords the 2020 diplomatic agreements signed at a trump white house ceremony that normalised relations between israel and some of its longtime arab adversariesthe us sought the cyberweapon for domestic usethe us had also moved to acquire pegasus the times found the fbi in a deal never previously reported bought the spyware in 2019 despite multiple reports that it had been used against activists and political opponents in other countries it also spent two years discussing whether to deploy a newer product called phantom inside the united statesthe discussions at the justice department and the fbi continued until last summer when the fbi ultimately decided not to use nso weaponsbut pegasus equipment is still in a new jersey building used by the fbi and the company also gave the agency a demonstration of phantom which could hack american phone numbersa brochure for potential customers obtained by the times says that phantom allows american law enforcement and spy agencies to turn your targets smartphone into an intelligence gold minethe yearlong times investigation was based on interviews with government officials leaders of intelligence and law enforcement agencies cyber experts business executives and privacy activists in a dozen countriesit tells the story of nsos rise from a startup operating out of a converted chicken coop on an agricultural cooperative to its blacklisting by the biden administration in november because of its use by foreign governments to maliciously target dissidents journalists and othersnso began with two school friends shalev hulio and omri lavie hatching startups in bnai zion an agricultural cooperative outside of tel aviv israel in the mid2000sone of their startups communitake which offered cellphone techsupport workers the ability to take control of their customers devices with permission caught the attention of a european intelligence agency hulio saidnso was born and the company eventually developed a way to gain access to phones without the users permission no need to click on a malicious attachment