The NSO company and its Pegasus software were well known.
But the extent of the espionage they have allowed and its abuses, including in France, has just been revealed thanks to a large investigation led by Forbidden Stories, an international consortium of journalists.
Leader in its field, the Israeli company has developed unparalleled spy capabilities: once a phone is infected, it is possible to intercept all the data that is there and listen to all the conversations, even those that use encrypted messaging.
Messages are picked up as they are read by the user.
Several states have reportedly used this technology against their opponents and against the press.
Read also:
All you need to know about Pegasus, this rogue software to spy on journalists and activists
Forbidden Stories has had access to a list of 50,000 targeted phone numbers since 2016 by the Israeli company. If the software is supposed to be used by states for the fight against international terrorism, Forbidden Stories and the 17 media outlets that the organization has assembled have counted in this list at least 180 journalists, 600 politicians, 85 rights activists. human beings or 65 business leaders. A head of state and two European heads of government would also be on the list.
"We are not talking here just of a few rogue states, but of a massive use of spyware by at least twenty countries",
denounced the secretary general of Amnesty, Agnès Callamard.
"These are extremely shocking facts, and, if they are proven, extremely serious,"
government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Monday.
"We are extremely attached to freedom of the press,"
he insisted.
If the accusations against NSO are true,
"it is completely unacceptable",
denounced for her part the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
This is not the first time that NSO has been singled out.
Saudi Arabia, in particular, in 2018 hacked the phone of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.
In France, a thousand targets have been counted
Some of these targets listed by Forbidden Stories, not necessarily all of them, may have been infected by the Pegasus software. Azerbaijan, Rwanda or Morocco are cited by the consortium. The investigation also revealed that relatives of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, brutally murdered by the Saudi services, had been monitored using NSO software. In Hungary, 300 targets have been identified. But Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said the intelligence services had not used NSO.
In France, a thousand targets have been counted.
Journalists from
Le Monde
, Mediapart,
Canard enchaîné
, AFP, France Televisions or
Figaro
, such as Éric Zemmour, appear on this list.
Morocco is believed to be behind the targeting for a large part of them.
Monday afternoon, Rabat denied the accusations.
Their technology is second to none, but many in cybersecurity no longer want to be associated with them.
Lior Tabansky, researcher in Tel Aviv
As soon as the investigation was published, NSO also protested. Founded in 2009-2010, the company draws embarrassed comments in Israel.
“Here, we say of those who work for NSO that they are selling their soul,”
explains Guillaume-David Deniel, a former employee of Kaymera, one of the NSO subsidiaries. Kaymera is developing means of cyber protection.
“Their technology is unparalleled, but many in the cybersecurity field no longer want to be associated with them,”
also comments Lior Tabansky, a researcher at the Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center in Tel Aviv.
“But the market is very lucrative,” he
adds.
Recently, after the proliferation of scandals, the group began to want to polish its image.
The company hired one of the former IDF communications officers Ariella Ben Abraham last year.
"We are talking about scandals, but not about the investigations that NSO allows to unravel,"
relativizes Lior Tabansky, who doubts widespread surveillance thanks to the company's spyware.
“It is very expensive, even for a very wealthy petromonarchy,
” he says.
Read also:
Pegasus: an Israeli company accused of serving the world espionage of reporters and dissidents
The sale of NSO cybersurveillance products is overseen by the Israeli government, which issues the permits. But, in reality, NSO has few limits. The only constraint is not to offer its
“solutions”
to Israel's adversaries. Internally, the company is also supposed to have an internal audit system for its customers. In June, NSO presented its first annual report on transparency and accountability. The company claims to have
"disconnected"
five of its customers due to abuse and to have interrupted its collaboration with five others, because of questions about respect for human rights.
S
urtout, NSO ensures not be responsible for the use of its technology, as if she had anticipated the scandal.
