The New York Times reported at the time that at least three Mexican federal agencies had purchased some $80 million of spyware from NSO Group since 2011.
In one case, international experts investigating the disappearance of 43 students in Mexico in 2014 were targeted with the spyware after it had been sold to the government, the experts said.
In 2016, Apple rushed out a security update after researchers said prominent Emirati rights activist Ahmed Mansoor was targeted by UAE authorities using Pegasus spyware.
The software has been pinpointed by independent experts as likely being used in a number of countries with poor human rights records.
- COURT CHALLENGE -
NSO's website says the company has "a pioneering approach to applying rigorous, ethical standards to everything we do".
It says it has a vetting process on sales which combines licensing by Israeli export-control authorities with an internal review by a business ethics committee.
The firm said Tuesday that it only licenses its software to governments for "fighting crime and terror".
UK-based rights group Amnesty International, however, said its members and supporters in Israel would on Wednesday petition the Tel Aviv district court against continued government export approval for NSO software.
