Time to clip the wings of NSO and its Pegasus spyware | John Naughton

Now the reach of the Israeli firm's smartphone-hacking software has been revealed, the US and Apple may take action

• See all the Guardian's stories as part of the Pegasus project investigation

What's the most problematic tech company in the world? Facebook? Google? Palantir? Nope. It's a small, privately held Israeli company called NSO that most people have never heard of. On its website, it describes itself as a world leader in precision cyberintelligence solutions". Its software, sold only to licensed government intelligence and law-enforcement agencies", naturally, helps them to lawfully address the most dangerous issues in today's world. NSO's technology has helped prevent terrorism, break up criminal operations, find missing people and assist search and rescue teams."

So what is this magical stuff? It's called Pegasus and it is ultra-sophisticated spyware that covertly penetrates and compromises smartphones. It's particularly good with Apple phones, which is significant because these devices are generally more secure than Android ones. This is positively infuriating to Apple, which views protecting its users' privacy as one of its USPs.