French Ex-Diplomat Saw "Potential For Misuse" While Working At Pegasus Maker NSO

At NSO's offices, Gerard Araud discovered something resembling a classic tech start-up: teams of programmers "all between 25-30 years old, in flip-flops, black t-shirts, all with PhDs in computer science..."

Few outsiders are granted access to the ultra-secretive world of NSO Group, the Israeli maker of the Pegasus spyware at the heart of a global phone hacking scandal. Gerard Araud, a former French ambassador, is one of them. The recently retired diplomat took a position as a consultant to NSO in 2019, advising on human rights, soon after stepping down as France's ambassador to Washington during the tumultuous years of Donald Trump's presidency. "I took the position because I found it interesting. It was a new world for me," Araud, who also served as French ambassador to Israel in the early 2000s, told AFP by telephone. At NSO's offices, he discovered something resembling a classic tech start-up: teams of programmers "all between 25-30 years old, in flip-flops, black t-shirts, all with PhDs in computer science..."