Widespread criticism as scale of spyware program emerges

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European politicians and media groups have expressed outrage over reports that an Israeli company has provided malware for phones used by governments to spy on activists, journalists, lawyers and politicians in several countries.

The NSO group and its malware Pegasus, capable of turning on a phone’s camera or microphone and harvesting its data, have been in the headlines since 2016, when researchers accused it of helping to spy on a dissident in the United Arab Emirates.

A collaborative investigation by The Washington Post, The Guardian, Le Monde and other outlets, based on a leaked list of 50,000 phone numbers, found that espionage may be much more important than it is realized. thought before.

The leaked figures are believed to relate to people identified by NSO clients as potential surveillance targets.

They include one linked to a murdered Mexican journalist and family members of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said espionage, if confirmed, was “completely unacceptable”, while French government spokesman Gabriel Attal called it “extremely shocking “.

UN chief of rights Michelle Bachelet called for better regulation of surveillance technologies and Reporters Without Borders chief Christophe Deloire said the revelations had caused “shock and disgust”.

It is not known how many devices were actually targeted or monitored and NSO has denied any wrongdoing.

But claims that countries like Azerbaijan, Hungary, India and Morocco, where authorities have cracked down on independent media, have spied on dissident journalists at home and abroad have sparked outrage. .

The other countries that made up most of the numbers on the list were Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The French investigation site Mediapart affirmed that the phones of its founder Edwy Plenel and one of his journalists were among those targeted by the Moroccan intelligence services and declared that he had filed a criminal complaint.

Morocco has denied these allegations, saying it “has never acquired computer software to infiltrate communications devices”.

Pegasus is a highly invasive tool that can turn on a target’s phone camera and microphone, as well as access data on the device, effectively turning a phone into a pocket spy.

In some cases, it can be installed without having to prompt a user to initiate a download.

NSO insists that it is only intended for use in the fight against terrorism and other crimes, and that any other use is the work of “rogue” operators – claims denied by Amnesty International.

“NSO spyware is a weapon of choice for repressive governments seeking to silence journalists, attack activists and crush dissent, putting countless lives at risk,” Amnesty International chief said , Agnes Callamard, in a press release.

“It is clear that its technology facilitates systemic abuse.”

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The Post said the numbers on the list were not being assigned, but other media involved in the project were able to identify more than 1,000 people in more than 50 countries.

They included several members of Arab royal families, at least 65 business executives, 85 human rights activists, 189 journalists and more than 600 politicians and government officials, including heads of state, prime ministers and ministers. .

The survey identified at least 180 journalists in 20 countries who were selected for potential targeting with Pegasus between 2016 and June 2021.

Among them were journalists from Agence France-Presse, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, El Pais, The Associated Press, Le Monde, Bloomberg, The Economist and Reuters, The Guardian reported.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, a senior investigative journalist in India, said Amnesty International informed him that his phone and his privacy had been “compromised” in 2018.

“It also puts my sources at risk. People who speak to you on condition of anonymity, if they are compromised, it’s terrible,” he told AFP. “It’s bad for democracy, it’s bad for journalism. It’s terrible.”

The list included 15,000 issues in Mexico, including an issue believed to be linked to Mexican journalist Cecilio Pineda, killed in 2017, and 300 in India, including prominent politicians and journalists.

India’s main opposition figure, Rahul Gandhi, has been selected twice as a potential surveillance target, The Guardian reported.

Indian Home Secretary Amit Shah denied the information, saying it was aimed “at humiliating India on the world stage, peddling the same old narratives about our nation and derailing the development trajectory of India “.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told reporters that Budapest had “no knowledge of this kind of data collection”.

NSO Group, which is based in Israel’s high-tech hub in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv, has denied any wrongdoing.

He denied, calling the investigation “full of flawed assumptions and unsubstantiated theories,” and threatening libel lawsuits.

“We strongly deny the false claims made in their report,” NSO said.

He said he was “in no way associated” with Khashoggi’s murder, adding that he sold “only to law enforcement and intelligence agencies of controlled governments.”

The Washington Post said a forensic analysis revealed that two women close to Khashoggi had been hacked. He was assassinated in 2018 by a Saudi squad.

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