ByBill Toulas-September 12, 2019.134 Dea reportedly tried to buy Nso Community malware, but it wasn’t because it was too costly. The department bought a different solution from another organization but did not make much use of it. The Nso downplayed the incident, and the Dea declined any contractual information to discuss. According to the specifics in the Motherboard story, the two organizations had several discussions that ended in August 2014 with the following: “… Unfortunately, because of the high cost associated with the initial test and the estimated cost of the overall system, I don’t think it is within our current budgetary parameters to attempt it.” The Nso has ties to multiple governments such as Mexican, or Middle East regimes. The developer of spyware develops software that can hack into iPhone and Android devices allowing quiet hacking to eavesdrop exfiltration of data and more. However, while Nso may be doing business behind closed doors with government agencies, some of its former employees are doing it on the dark webfound in 45 countries and in the hands of actors who breached all types of data privacy regulations blatantly. In fact, they were doing it against the protection to privacy and freedom of expression proponents and progressives generally who had reasons to monitor and suppress their government. After all paying $2.4 M for a deal with “Hacking Squad,” an Italian corporation engaged in the same area as Nso, Dea did continue with another contractor. The agency terminated their deal after three years and 17 occasions that the Dea used Hacking Team’s spyware because they thought they didn’t need the device after all. Motherboard tried to reach Dea for a comment but its current leader refused to comment on their internal contracting operation. Omri Lavie, co-founder of Nso, also reacted to the media channel by downplaying the story and saying “good luck with another tale of nothingness.” The Nso rightly believes there is no story here because the story’s meaning is in elements that they don’t understand or value. Such elements form the privacy rights of individuals and represent an ethical approach to investigation. If government agencies that rely on people’s taxes to purchase and turn sophisticated malware against them breach those rights there is a tale.