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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán
Photo: POOL / REUTERS
Hundreds of journalists, human rights activists and opposition activists around the world have apparently been victims of extensive illegal state wiretapping.
This is the result of research by an international journalist consortium led by the French research organization Forbidden Stories and the human rights organization Amnesty International.
According to the report, secret services and police authorities in several countries misused a cyber weapon from the Israeli company NSO Group to attack the cell phones of journalists and human rights activists.
In Germany, »SZ«, NDR, WDR and »Zeit« were involved in the research; 15 other editorial offices from ten countries also publish the research.
According to their own statements, the journalists were able to evaluate a data leak with more than 50,000 telephone numbers that were presumably selected by NSO customers as targets for possible surveillance.
However, the leaked data does not provide any unequivocal information about who recorded it for which specific purpose.
»Pegasus« can spy on smartphones in real time
»Pegasus« is currently regarded by experts as the most powerful surveillance program for cell phones and is classified as a cyber weapon.
It can spy on infiltrated smartphones in real time and bypass the encryption of chat programs such as WhatsApp or Signal.
NSO only sells the program to government agencies and for the purpose of combating terrorism and serious crime.
According to the research, however, the leaked list also includes the mobile phone numbers of more than 180 journalists, including reporters from Le Monde, Mediapart and Le Canard Enchainé in France, a reporter from the US television channel CNN, Hungarian investigative reporters and well-known journalists from Azerbaijan.
With the help of forensic investigations, according to the research, attempted or successful attacks with Pegasus on the cell phones of journalists, human rights activists, their family members and business people could be proven in 37 cases.
The cell phone forensics was therefore carried out in Amnesty International's Security Lab.
The Citizen Lab of the Canadian University of Toronto, which specializes in the analysis of cyber attacks, verified the method.
Hungarian investigative journalists among the victims
The journalists whose smartphones have shown traces of successful Pegasus attacks include two reporters from the Hungarian investigative medium Direkt36. According to the media involved, the research suggests that these attacks were carried out by government agencies in Hungary. The Hungarian government did not contradict this when asked. A spokesman for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's office announced that state agencies in Hungary only use "covert methods" within the legal framework.
In France, according to a forensic investigation, the cell phone of the founder of the Mediapart research platform, Edwy Plenel, was infected. Apparently a well-known reporter from Le Monde was also spied on. In both cases, analysis of the data and further research suggest that these attacks originated in Morocco. The Moroccan government said it had not been established that there was a business relationship between Morocco and "the aforementioned Israeli company."
According to research by the journalists' consortium, those affected by cell phone surveillance include Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of the Saudi Arabian dissident Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered in 2018.
Her cell phone was infected with the Pegasus malware just four days after the murder, according to Amnesty International cyber experts.
NSO said that his company's technology was "in no way" connected to the murder of Khashoggi.
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