Hacker News Reader

It's most likely some contracts with NSO group or some other Israeli firm.

Only for high value targets of course, otherwise they'll just go with a simpler and cheaper route.

France recently had its own Pegasus scandal, a french firm sold a software called "Predator" to dubious countries (see https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/act10/7245/2023/en/)

There’s a recent Darknet Diaries episode about Predator for anyone interested:

There is always a $5 wrench solution to pretty much any problem. You either have to be willing to use it, or just creative enough to find it.

Yeah definitely, those expensive and rare exploits won't be used for the drug dealer around the street, that's for sure.