NSO Group, whose software has allegedly been used to spy on hundreds of Indians including politicians, activists and journalists, has temporarily blocked several of its government clients across the world from using its technology as it investigates possible misuse of its spyware, US media outlet NPR has reported.

The suspension of client access to its Pegasus spyware, which is classified as a weapon, is in response to the investigation by the Pegasus Project, a consortium of 80 journalists from 17 media outlets in 10 countries, that reported on how NSO’s software was used to surveil hundreds of people across the world by bad actor governments.

“There is an investigation into some clients. Some of those clients have been temporarily suspended,” an anonymous source in the company told NPR, without divulging any further details on which governments and agencies had lost access to Pegasus as Israeli defence regulations prohibit the company from identifying its clients.

NSO did not respond to ET’s queries until press time on Friday.

The revelations also come soon after Israeli authorities inspected the offices of NSO Group near Tel Aviv on Wednesday, in response to the Pegasus project reports alleging surveillance using the company’s software. The Israeli government has also come under pressure since it regulates the sale of the technology to countries.

“Representatives of several bodies visited the office of NSO in order to assess the allegations raised in regards to the company,” Israel’s Defence Ministry said in a statement earlier this week.

NSO has said that it is “working in full transparency with the Israeli authorities” after early reports described the move on NSO’s office by Israeli authorities as a raid. The company has maintained that Pegasus has no links to the phone numbers that were allegedly hacked using its software as various reports have said.

“Almost everything we checked, we found no connection to Pegasus,” the NSO employee is quoted by NPR as saying.

NSO has said it sells its technology solely to law enforcement and intelligence agencies of vetted governments for the purpose of saving lives by preventing serious crimes and terrorist attacks. It claims Pegasus has helped “prevent terror attacks, gun violence, car explosions and suicide bombings”, and has broken up paedophilia, sex, and drug-trafficking rings.

It claims it has said that it revoked access to Pegasus for five clients since 2016 after its investigations found misuse and terminated contracts with five others for not meeting human rights standards.

Reports exposing the alleged misuse of the Pegasus spyware by governments and agencies across the world have said that French President Emmanuel Macron’s phone was listed as a potential target for surveillance by Morocco and that Pegasus was installed on the phones of the fiancee of murdered Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.