Researchers from Google and Citizen Lab urged Congress to use intelligence agencies, diplomatic, and economic means to pressure commercial spyware vendors such as NSO Group.
Citizen Lab researchers disclosed two separate operations where the Pegasus spyware was deployed, including one against official UK government networks and another against 65 Catalan individuals in Spain.
A group of 18 lawmakers are calling on the Biden administration to sanction surveillance technology firms for enabling "human rights abuses."
The Commerce Department added NSO Group, Candiru, Positive Technologies, and COSEINC to its Entity List, restricting exports of software and hardware to them.