With Israeli software they spied on journalists, politicians and activists around the world

07/18/2021 4:53 PM

• Clarín.com

• World

Updated 07/18/2021 4:53 PM

An Israeli software program designed to hunt down criminals and terrorists was used to infiltrate at least 37 mobile phones

belonging to journalists, human rights activists

, company directors and two women close to Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

That is one of the main conclusions of an investigation published this Sunday and carried out by

The Washington Post

and 16 other media outlets with the help of Amnesty International and the French non-profit organization Forbidden Stories.

Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories

had access to a list of more than 50,000 phone numbers

and shared them with the media, which used them for their research.

Of those 50,000 phone numbers,

37 were infiltrated with the software program

, according to the investigation.

People linked to Jamal Khashoggi were victims of espionage.

AFP photo

The program at the center of the controversy is a "spyware" or spyware called Pegasus and

created by the Israeli technology firm NSO Group

, which sells this program to up to 60 military, intelligence or security agencies in 40 countries around the world. .

Pegasus first made the headlines in 2016, when the prestigious Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto

discovered vulnerabilities in iOS

, Apple's mobile operating system.

Later, in 2019,

1,400 people, including several Catalan politicians

, fell victim to spying by Pegasus, which exploited a WhatsApp vulnerability to infiltrate phones.

Now, however,

The Washington Post

revealed the existence of a list of 50,000 phone numbers belonging to countries notorious for spying on their citizens or who are clients of the NSO Group.

From those numbers, the research authors were able to identify

1,000 people living in 50 countries around the world.

They include several members of Arab royal families, at least 65 senior business officials, 85 human rights activists,

189 journalists and more than 600 politicians and government officials

, including heads of state and government, ministers and diplomats.

In the sights

The Washington Post

and other outlets have been unable to find out

exactly what the target of the 50,000-name list was

.

They also don't know who created the list and how many of the phones were targeted.

At the moment, they have been able to confirm that 37 were infiltrated,

even for just a few seconds.

The iPhone of activist Ahmed Mansoor who was attacked by the Pegasus virus.

AP Photo

Governments or security agencies that used Pegasus to infiltrate the phones of journalists, activists, and other politicians

allegedly violated the user license

created by the NSO Group, which in theory designed those programs to monitor terrorists and criminals.

Speaking to

The Washington Post, the

NSO Group declined to identify the governments to which it has sold the spyware.

However, the media analysis concludes that, of the list of 50,000 cell

phone

numbers, the largest number

-15,000

- were in Mexico and belonged to politicians, journalists and trade unionists, among others.

Another large number of possible victims have been located in Qatar, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The investigation also reveals that

Pegasus tried to infiltrate the

Android

phone

of Hanan Elatr, who was one of Khashoggi's wives, just six months before his death.

It is not known whether those espionage attempts were successful.

In addition, the phone of his later fiancée, Hatice Cengiz, was infiltrated by spyware

just days after she died

, according to research published Sunday.

Speaking to

The Washington Post

, NSO defended that its programs help save lives and prevent criminal attacks and, in addition, considered that the investigation makes unfounded accusations.

The list includes numbers of journalists from media from around the world, such as Agence France-Presse, The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, France 24, Radio Free Europe, Mediapart, El País, Associated Press , Le Monde, Bloomberg, The Economist, Reuters and Voice of America, said

The Guardian, one of the media that participated in the investigation.

The Guardian said the investigation

suggests "widespread and ongoing abuse"

of Pegasus, which the NSO says is intended to be used against criminals and terrorists.

Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based nonprofit media organization, initially had access to the leak, which they later shared with the media.

Source: EFE and AFP

PB

Look also

An espionage scandal in Catalonia unleashes a political storm in Spain

Operation Baldur: how was the hit of a German submarine to Great Britain in WWII