The Nov. 3 blacklisting by the US Commerce Department of the Israeli spyware company NSO took the company heads by surprise. As the announcement was made in Washington, NSO president and founder Shalev Hulio was in the US capital at a series of meetings and was apprised of the decision seconds before meeting with members of Congress.
“We did not get any advance warning, we were not summoned to a hearing, we were not asked about our operations; we simply heard it from reporters and were totally stunned,” one senior company official told Al-Monitor this week on condition of anonymity. According to another version, the Americans did give the company some warning — half an hour.
