lswcap
Pegasus, developed by Israeli security firm NSO Group as a smartphone monitoring software, is said to have been used to monitor at least 180 journalists. It is said that the number of phone numbers mentioned as the target of monitoring reaches 50,000, and the NSO Group denies the report, saying there is no solid basis for it.
This report was released by the Pegasus Project, a global consortium with more than 80 journalists from 17 media outlets in 10 countries. The project is organized in Forbidden Stories, an NPO helping journalists work with technical support from the international human rights organization Amnesty International Security Institute.
According to the report, the research team analyzed a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers described by NSO Group customers for surveillance purposes. As a result, it is revealed that the phone numbers of more than 180 reporters in 20 countries were being monitored through at least 10 customers.
The countries covered are Mexico, United Kingdom, France, Spain, Hungary, Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, Togo, Uganda, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and India. It is said that the target of surveillance included not only journalists and human rights activists, as previously pointed out, but also political opponents, businessmen and even heads of state.
Journalists who have been monitored have already been threatened or arrested. There are also reports of cases in which they escaped overseas to escape persecution but were still under surveillance. The report points out that it could be life-threatening, like Jamal Khashoggi, who has gone missing since visiting the Saudi consulate-general in Turkey in October 2018 and appears to have been killed at the consulate.
It is pointed out that surveillance of journalists has a strong atrophy effect, which is an important issue that should be taken seriously in the United States and Western Europe as well as in situations where journalists work in hostile environments for their mission.
In addition, the NSO Group, the Pegasus developer, said in response to the report that it could not verify the identity of a government customer for contract or national security reasons. He also denied that the report was based on false assumptions and unconfirmed theories and that the 50,000 phone number data analyzed by the research group was not a list of phone numbers targeted by the government using Pegasus. He said that he did not know about specific espionage activities for customers about the use of Pegasus, but said that he had come to a clear conclusion that this kind of system is mainly used for purposes other than surveillance, with a rudimentary and commonsense understanding of information. Related information can be found here.
Meanwhile, according to additional reports, the 50,000 phone numbers targeted by Pegasus include 10 prime ministers, 3 presidents and 1 king. According to a new announcement that 14 heads of state are being monitored, 10 prime ministers, 3 presidents and the king, including President Macron of France, King Mohammed VI of Morocco and Prime Minister, Iraqi President, South African President, Egyptian Prime Minister, Pakistan, Lebanon and Ugandan Prime Ministers It is stated that there is one person. The director-general of the World Health Organization was also targeted.
The phone numbers of these 14 heads of state are consistent with public records, and there is evidence that they are the person in contact with government officials and relatives, but it is unknown whether they are the current phone numbers. It is also unclear whether the Pegasus attack actually took place because the head of state refused to deliver the smartphone. However, as a result of forensic analysis of 67 out of 50,000 phone numbers listed on the watch list, not only found traces of intrusions in the 37s, but also traces of intrusion or near-intrusion immediately after the timestamp in the list was updated.
NSO Group also said that the list in question had nothing to do with the company, and that President Macron and others were not targeted at its customers. It also issued a statement that the numbers on the list were not necessarily subject to monitoring using Pegasus. In the case of France, it said it would investigate the report, and said that if the information that Macron’s phone was being monitored by a Pegasus was true, it would be serious.
Add comment