The technology has been used to crack down on pro-democracy activists in the UAE, some of whom found Hacking Team software surreptitously implanted on their computers.

The surveillance product used by UAE authorities has ties to New York University, which maintains a campus in Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital. Paul Kurtz, the chief strategy officer at Cyberpoint, chairs an advisory board for a privacy and cybersecurity center at the NYU-Abu Dhabi campus.

In October 2014, Kurtz moderated an NYU-UAE panel on cybersecurity issues. The event was sponsored by the Center for Interdisciplinary Studies in Security and Privacy and the Atlantic Council.

As we've reported, Cyberpoint has a special relationship with U.S. officials and the UAE, winning lucrative American military contracts and a special license from the State Department to supply the Persian Gulf nation with cybertechnology. The firm also advises the UAE intelligence agency, which is modeled on the U.S. National Security Agency.