{"id":44542,"date":"2021-12-22T14:03:28","date_gmt":"2021-12-22T14:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packetstormsecurity.com\/news\/view\/32938\/The-Secret-Uganda-Deal-That-Has-Brought-NSO-To-The-Brink-of-Collapse.html"},"modified":"2021-12-22T14:03:28","modified_gmt":"2021-12-22T14:03:28","slug":"the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret Uganda Deal That Has Brought NSO To The Brink of Collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"intro-image intro-left\"> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/nso-group-hq-800x534.jpg\" alt=\"A man walks by the building entrance of Israeli cyber company NSO Group at one of its branches in the Arava Desert on November 11, 2021, in Sapir, Israel.\"><figcaption class=\"caption\">\n<div class=\"caption-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/nso-group-hq.jpg\" class=\"enlarge-link\" data-height=\"683\" data-width=\"1024\">Enlarge<\/a> <span class=\"sep\">\/<\/span> A man walks by the building entrance of Israeli cyber company NSO Group at one of its branches in the Arava Desert on November 11, 2021, in Sapir, Israel.<\/div>\n<div class=\"caption-credit\">Amir Levy | Getty Images<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside id=\"social-left\" class=\"social-left\" aria-label=\"Read the comments or share this article\"> <a title=\"142 posters participating\" class=\"comment-count icon-comment-bubble-down\" href=\"https:\/\/arstechnica.com\/features\/2021\/12\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/?comments=1\"> <\/p>\n<h4 class=\"comment-count-before\">reader comments<\/h4>\n<p> <span class=\"comment-count-number\">221<\/span> <span class=\"visually-hidden\"> with 142 posters participating<\/span> <\/a> <\/p>\n<div class=\"share-links\">\n<h4>Share this story<\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p> <!-- cache hit 218:single\/related:2aa6e8f4d0b9bffd684099f0c3af3ffd --><!-- empty --><\/p>\n<p>In February 2019, an Israeli woman sat across from the son of Uganda\u2019s president and made an audacious pitch\u2014would he want to secretly hack any phone in the world?<\/p>\n<p>Lt. General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, in charge of his father\u2019s security and a long-whispered successor to Yoweri Museveni, was keen, said two people familiar with the sales pitch.<\/p>\n<p>After all, the woman, who had ties to Israeli intelligence, was pitching him Pegasus, a piece of spyware so powerful that Middle East dictators and autocratic regimes had been paying tens of millions for it for years.<\/p>\n<p>But for NSO, the Israeli company that created Pegasus, this dalliance into East Africa would prove to be the moment it crossed a red line, infuriating US diplomats and triggering a chain of events that would see it blacklisted by the commerce department, pursued by Apple, and driven to the verge of defaulting on its loans, according to interviews with US and Israeli officials, industry insiders, and NSO employees.<\/p>\n<p>A few months after the initial approach, NSO\u2019s chief executive, Shalev Hulio, landed in Uganda to seal the deal, according to two people familiar with NSO\u2019s East Africa business. Hulio, who flew the world with the permission of the Israeli government to sell Pegasus, liked to demonstrate in real time how it could hack a brand-new, boxed iPhone.<\/p>\n<p>The eventual business was small for NSO. A person familiar with the transaction said it brought in between $10 million and $20 million, a fraction of the $243 million that Moody\u2019s estimated the privately owned NSO made in revenues in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>But about two years after the sales pitch, someone deployed Pegasus to try to hack the phones of 11 American diplomats and employees of the US embassy in Uganda, according to two US officials, who spoke after notifications were sent out by Apple when the iPhone maker discovered and closed a flaw in its operating system in November.<\/p>\n<p>It is not clear who tried to hack the US citizens. Uganda\u2019s neighbor, Rwanda, had also been using Pegasus to hack phones inside Uganda, but the revelation shocked the US. NSO has always told its customers that US phone numbers are off-limits. In this case, all 11 targets were using Ugandan numbers but had Apple logins using their State Department emails, according to the two US officials.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad_wrapper\" aria-label=\"In Content advertisement\"> <span class=\"ad_notice\">Advertisement <\/span> <\/aside>\n<p>NSO said it shut down the hacking systems for \u201ccustomers relevant to this case\u201d and is investigating the issue. A person familiar with the company said it no longer has any business in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The presidential press secretary for Museveni and the minister of information for the Ugandan government did not reply to a request for comment. A person close to Museveni said they \u201cwere not authorized to speak on the subject.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Israeli and US officials declined to confirm that the Ugandan hack directly triggered a decision to blacklist NSO. But one US official who discussed the issue with Israel\u2019s defense ministry said: \u201cLook at the entire sequence of events here\u2014this is careful, not by chance.\u201d He added that putting NSO, one of the jewels of Israel\u2019s tech community, on a US blacklist was designed to \u201cpunish and isolate\u201d the company.<\/p>\n<p>The blacklisting, which came in November, means that NSO cannot buy any equipment, service, or intellectual property from US-based companies without approval, crippling a company whose terminals ran on servers from Dell and Intel, routers from Cisco, and whose desktop computers run on Windows operating systems, according to a spec sheet from a sale to Ghana, in West Africa.<\/p>\n<p>In recent weeks, for instance, Intel asked all its employees to cease any ongoing business relationships with NSO, one person familiar with the matter said. Intel said in a statement that it \u201ccomplies with all applicable US laws, including US export control regulations.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A new CEO, Itzik Benbenisti, hired from Partner Communications, one of Israel\u2019s largest telecom providers, quit two weeks into his new job after the blacklisting. And while the company tried to cheer up its employees with a Hanukkah party in the beach resort of Eilat, Hulio\u2014who retook the reins after Benbenisti stepped down\u2014was less sanguine in a recent phone call with an old business associate.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe always knew this thing had an expiration date,\u201d he told the friend, complaining that some clients had asked to shift their contracts to lesser-known rivals, according to a person familiar with the conversation.<\/p>\n<p>After spending a decade in the favor of the Israeli government, NSO now finds itself as an irritant in relations between Israel and the US, using up vital foreign \u201cpolicy bandwidth we need to talk about Iran,\u201d said a foreign ministry official who asked for anonymity.<\/p>\n<p>That is a reversal for NSO, which former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used as a diplomatic calling card with several countries, including the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia, which did not have official relations with Israel.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"ad_wrapper\" aria-label=\"In Content advertisement\"> <span class=\"ad_notice\">Advertisement <\/span> <\/aside>\n<p>The reputational damage has also made it difficult to keep hiring the most promising graduates of Israel\u2019s elite signals intelligence units, who have the skills to repeatedly outwit the defenses of both Android phones and iPhones.<\/p>\n<p>For example, when Google reverse-engineered the hack used against American diplomats in Uganda, it found an elegant, tiny piece of code that adapted software from 1990s Xerox machines to fit a so-called Turing machine\u2014essentially a complete computer\u2014into a single GIF file.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPretty incredible, and at the same time, pretty terrifying,\u201d said Google\u2019s engineers. \u201cWow. Just wow,\u201d tweeted Yaniv Erlich, an Israeli professor of computer science at Columbia University.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can count on one hand the number of teams in the world that could create something like that,\u201d said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the University of Toronto\u2019s Citizen Lab, which found the malware and brought it to Apple\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n<p>NSO said it had hired 30 new employees in recent weeks. \u201cThere is an understanding among our employees that there is a wide gap between media reports and the reality,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, NSO has also fallen into the crosshairs of Silicon Valley, after angering Apple and Meta by hacking into iPhones and WhatsApp.<\/p>\n<p>Apple\u2019s two-pronged approach\u2014it has notified many of the targets of NSO\u2019s hacks, while suing the company in US courts\u2014sent a \u201cshockwave\u201d through the industry, said a person familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n<p>Apple and Citizen Lab have also shared NSO\u2019s technical secrets, worrying rival companies enough to ask their clients to dial down the use of other spyware, scared of getting caught in Apple\u2019s dragnet, said a former senior executive at an Israeli tech group.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a sense that this is a full-on war against the entire industry,\u201d he said, adding that high-level Israeli employees of NSO and other similar firms are \u201cstaying put\u201d in Israel to avoid being pulled in for questioning in the US and its allies.<\/p>\n<p>For now, the US pressure had left NSO with few options, said company insiders. Moody\u2019s has downgraded NSO\u2019s debt as the company\u2019s free cash flow turned negative in 2020 and is expected to remain negative this year. \u201cThere\u2019s a high risk NSO might not be in compliance\u201d with a covenant on the $500 million in loans it took in 2019 to go private at a $1 billion valuation, said Moody\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>It has hired Moelis &amp; Co, a New York-based investment bank, to see if it can sell off parts of the company to raise cash, even offering to change Pegasus into a \u201cdefensive\u201d product if that makes it more palatable to US investors.<\/p>\n<p>Last Wednesday, that window also narrowed\u201418 US senators wrote to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to sanction NSO under the Magnitsky Act, alongside a handful of other cyber surveillance firms.<\/p>\n<p>If the US acts upon that request, NSO would be cut off from the US banking system, and its employees would be barred from traveling to the US.<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/\">\u00a9 2021 The Financial Times Ltd<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\">All rights reserved<\/a> Not to be redistributed, copied, or modified in any way.<\/em><\/p>\n<p> READ MORE <a href=\"https:\/\/packetstormsecurity.com\/news\/view\/32938\/The-Secret-Uganda-Deal-That-Has-Brought-NSO-To-The-Brink-of-Collapse.html\">HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>READ MORE HERE&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44543,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[9793],"class_list":["post-44542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-packet-storm","tag-headlineprivacymalwarephonecyberwarisraelspywareapple"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Secret Uganda Deal That Has Brought NSO To The Brink of Collapse 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security &amp; Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Secret Uganda Deal That Has Brought NSO To The Brink of Collapse 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security &amp; Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-22T14:03:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/nso-group-hq-800x534.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"TH Author\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@threatshub\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@threatshub\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"TH Author\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"TH Author\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/12e0a8671ff89a863584f193e7062476\"},\"headline\":\"The Secret Uganda Deal That Has Brought NSO To The Brink of Collapse\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-22T14:03:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1400,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/12\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"headline,privacy,malware,phone,cyberwar,israel,spyware,apple\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Packet Storm\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Secret Uganda Deal That Has Brought NSO To The Brink of Collapse 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/12\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-22T14:03:28+00:00\",\"description\":\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security & Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/12\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2021\\\/12\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse.jpg\",\"width\":800,\"height\":534},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"headline,privacy,malware,phone,cyberwar,israel,spyware,apple\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/tag\\\/headlineprivacymalwarephonecyberwarisraelspywareapple\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"The Secret Uganda Deal That Has Brought NSO To The Brink of Collapse\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News\",\"description\":\"%%focuskw%% Threat Intel \u2013 Threat Intel Services \u2013 CyberIntelligence \u2013 Cyber Threat Intelligence - Threat Intelligence Feeds - Threat Intelligence Reports - CyberSecurity Report \u2013 Cyber Security PDF \u2013 Cybersecurity Trends - Cloud Sandbox \u2013- Threat IntelligencePortal \u2013 Incident Response \u2013 Threat Hunting \u2013 IOC - Yara - Security Operations Center \u2013 SecurityOperation Center \u2013 Security SOC \u2013 SOC Services - Advanced Threat - Threat Detection - TargetedAttack \u2013 APT \u2013 Anti-APT \u2013 Advanced Protection \u2013 Cyber Security Services \u2013 Cybersecurity Services -Threat Intelligence Platform\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"alternateName\":\"Threatshub.org\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"ThreatsHub.org\",\"alternateName\":\"Threatshub.org\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/Threatshub_Favicon1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/05\\\/Threatshub_Favicon1.jpg\",\"width\":432,\"height\":435,\"caption\":\"ThreatsHub.org\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/threatshub\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.threatshub.org\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/12e0a8671ff89a863584f193e7062476\",\"name\":\"TH Author\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/066276f086d5155df79c850206a779ad368418a844da0182ce43f9cd5b506c3d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/066276f086d5155df79c850206a779ad368418a844da0182ce43f9cd5b506c3d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/066276f086d5155df79c850206a779ad368418a844da0182ce43f9cd5b506c3d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"TH Author\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Secret Uganda Deal That Has Brought NSO To The Brink of Collapse 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News","description":"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security & Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Secret Uganda Deal That Has Brought NSO To The Brink of Collapse 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News","og_description":"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security & Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/","og_site_name":"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News","article_published_time":"2021-12-22T14:03:28+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/cdn.arstechnica.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/nso-group-hq-800x534.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"TH Author","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@threatshub","twitter_site":"@threatshub","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"TH Author","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/"},"author":{"name":"TH Author","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/12e0a8671ff89a863584f193e7062476"},"headline":"The Secret Uganda Deal That Has Brought NSO To The Brink of Collapse","datePublished":"2021-12-22T14:03:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/"},"wordCount":1400,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/coredata\/uploads\/2021\/12\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse.jpg","keywords":["headline,privacy,malware,phone,cyberwar,israel,spyware,apple"],"articleSection":["Packet Storm"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/","url":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/","name":"The Secret Uganda Deal That Has Brought NSO To The Brink of Collapse 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/coredata\/uploads\/2021\/12\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse.jpg","datePublished":"2021-12-22T14:03:28+00:00","description":"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security & Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/coredata\/uploads\/2021\/12\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/coredata\/uploads\/2021\/12\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse.jpg","width":800,"height":534},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/the-secret-uganda-deal-that-has-brought-nso-to-the-brink-of-collapse\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"headline,privacy,malware,phone,cyberwar,israel,spyware,apple","item":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/tag\/headlineprivacymalwarephonecyberwarisraelspywareapple\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"The Secret Uganda Deal That Has Brought NSO To The Brink of Collapse"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/","name":"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News","description":"%%focuskw%% Threat Intel \u2013 Threat Intel Services \u2013 CyberIntelligence \u2013 Cyber Threat Intelligence - Threat Intelligence Feeds - Threat Intelligence Reports - CyberSecurity Report \u2013 Cyber Security PDF \u2013 Cybersecurity Trends - Cloud Sandbox \u2013- Threat IntelligencePortal \u2013 Incident Response \u2013 Threat Hunting \u2013 IOC - Yara - Security Operations Center \u2013 SecurityOperation Center \u2013 Security SOC \u2013 SOC Services - Advanced Threat - Threat Detection - TargetedAttack \u2013 APT \u2013 Anti-APT \u2013 Advanced Protection \u2013 Cyber Security Services \u2013 Cybersecurity Services -Threat Intelligence Platform","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#organization"},"alternateName":"Threatshub.org","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#organization","name":"ThreatsHub.org","alternateName":"Threatshub.org","url":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/coredata\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Threatshub_Favicon1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/coredata\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Threatshub_Favicon1.jpg","width":432,"height":435,"caption":"ThreatsHub.org"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/threatshub"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/12e0a8671ff89a863584f193e7062476","name":"TH Author","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/066276f086d5155df79c850206a779ad368418a844da0182ce43f9cd5b506c3d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/066276f086d5155df79c850206a779ad368418a844da0182ce43f9cd5b506c3d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/066276f086d5155df79c850206a779ad368418a844da0182ce43f9cd5b506c3d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"TH Author"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}