The U.S. Banned Spyware — and Then Kept Trying to Use It

<p>A little over a decade ago, a small Israeli company created what would become the world’s most powerful and notorious hacking tool.</p><p>Mark Mazzetti, who is a Washington investigative correspondent for The Times, explains the surprising story of the NSO Group and why, despite banning its technology, the United States kept trying to use it.</p><p>Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/mark-mazzetti">Mark Mazzetti</a>, a Washington investigative correspondent for The New York Times.</p><p>Background reading: </p><ul><li>The Biden administration has been trying to choke off use of hacking tools made by the Israeli firm NSO. It turns out that<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/02/us/politics/nso-contract-us-spy.html"> not every part of the government has gotten the message</a>.</li><li>The president<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/27/us/politics/biden-spyware-executive-order.html"> signed an executive order</a> seeking to limit deployment of a tool that has been abused by autocracies — and some democracies — to spy on dissidents, human rights activists and journalists.</li></ul><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily">nytimes.com/thedaily</a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.</p>