The American Axios website said that Israeli officials are pressing the administration of US President Joe Biden to lift the ban on the Israeli electronic espionage company "NSO", which owns the famous Pegasus software.
The site's correspondent in Tel Aviv, Israeli journalist Barak Ravid, quoted two Israeli officials and an American official that the Biden administration is studying this request, while another American official denied it.
Ravid said removing NSO from the US Commerce Department's blacklist would be a dramatic reversal by the Biden administration, and could draw criticism from progressives in the Democratic Party and Congress, as well as by many in the cybersecurity community.
Last November, the US Department of Commerce included the Israeli company "NSO" and "Candiru" company working in the field of electronic intelligence in its blacklist of companies that it describes as engaging in activities that undermine US national security and the foreign interests of the United States.
Israel has been under international pressure to stop the export of spyware since last July, after a group of international press organizations revealed that the Pegasus program produced by NSO was used to hack the phones of journalists, prime ministers, officials and human rights activists in many countries.
NSO has also faced lawsuits and criticism from major technology companies accusing it of putting its customers at risk of hacking, and Apple was among the most prominent companies that decided to sue it.