NSO appoints ex-US Ambassador David Friedman as chair

Israeli cyberattack firm NSO Group has appointed former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman as its chairman. NSO was acquired final month by a gaggle of US buyers headed by Hollywood producer Robert Simonds.

Friedman and the American funding staff will undertake vigorous efforts to get the corporate faraway from the US Commerce Division’s blacklist, thus making it simpler to promote programs to federal authorities, and purchase tools and software program from US corporations.

Friedman’s appointment was made after the switch of possession of the corporate from Luxembourg-based Dufresne holdings group, owned by NSO cofounder, Omri Lavie, to the US funding group, which has injected a number of tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} into the corporate and erased money owed totaling $600 million. The corporate has careworn in a press launch, “The three cofounders of NSO now not have any holding within the firm.”

Along with eradicating NSO from the blacklist, the corporate additionally hopes for a change in US and Israeli coverage on distribution of cyberattack and adware instruments, after the Biden period, which significantly restricted Israeli corporations within the area and NSO specifically. This not solely harmed enterprise outcomes and the lack of many purchasers but in addition prompted a decline within the growth of latest intelligence software program and even negatively affected the intelligence image for Western and pro-Western militaries through the warfare in Israel.

At the start of 2022, Israel’s Ministry of Protection, on the request of the US, tightened situations for the sale cyberattack instruments and restricted them to a listing of some 30 democratic international locations solely, with lots of Israel’s allies – together with the UAE and India – excluded from the listing. This broken NSO’s enterprise efficiency and led different Israeli corporations, similar to Candiru or Quadream, to promote their property and even shut their doorways.

“Regardless of the unfavorable and largely unfair criticism directed in opposition to the corporate, you’re employed with satisfaction and countless dedication to offering superior applied sciences to guard safety and save innocents,” Friedman instructed NSO’s workers this morning on the firm’s places of work in Glilot close to Tel Aviv.

NSO mentioned it is going to proceed to function from Israel below the supervision of the Ministry of Protection “Whereas increasing its international actions and striving to resume actions within the US.”

Revealed by Globes, Israel enterprise information – en.globes.co.il – on November 9, 2025.

© Copyright of Globes Writer Itonut (1983) Ltd., 2025.