Juan Brodersen
07/15/2020 - 11:36
- Clarín.com
- Technology
Catalan politics is always effervescent. And as if he lacked any reactive, on Tuesday a scandal broke when the Catalan independence movement denounced that the President of Parliament, Roger Torrent, was spied on. And that he got spyware from WhatsApp called Pegasus , which steals personal information and makes it available to third parties.
First things first: A spyware is a "malicious" program, that is, that aims to inflict damage on the target (or target ) to the collect personal information (contact phone, chats, emails, geolocation, logins to web sites, etc.) and it has a particular way of entering: usually, without realizing it, we install it ourselves . They usually come "stuck" to the software or applications that we install.
The way to operate is to always operate in the " background ". This means that we do not see them explicitly, but to see them you must access the task managers of an operating system, and they can usually have names that make it difficult to identify them.
Unlike phishing , which targets massively any user to steal passwords and bank login data to steal credit card data, spyware targets a target : a particular person to spy on them.
Generally, in the case of Catalonia, to commit the person involved. A dynamic that has value in the field of political power games.
What is Pegasus and how it enters
Pegasus takes advantage of a Whastapp exploit. (AFP)
Pegasus is a program developed by NSO Group , an Israeli cybersecurity company, that had impressive propagation success. And WhatsApp was largely the gateway to Pegasus .
In May last year, Facebook's proprietary messaging service warned that many of its users were in danger from spyware. The company itself recognized the exploit : the vulnerability in its system, exploited by Pegasus.
Once installed, Pegasus accesses everything we have on the phone. Yes. Everything : Whatsapp chats , Gmail emails , Telegram conversations , Facebook posts , Twitter, Skype, Zoom meeting records.
In addition, Pegasus can copy the passwords of the WiFi networks that we use, which becomes a huge vulnerability because from there they can access other devices that do not necessarily have Pegasus installed, but that being on the same network already become accessible.
The espionage to which I have been subjected violates my right to privacy
Now, the question remains: why does a cybersecurity company develop such a program? The justification for its existence has to do with the “fight against terrorism” . According to the NSO Group, its main clients are governments.
However, its use began to be exploited in the field of internal politics, beyond the national security issues of each country.
The Catalan case: Torrent, torrent
Roger Torrent at a press conference, this Tuesday, about the espionage to which he was subjected. (AFP)
The attack that Roger Torrent suffered (curiously his last name coincides with the name of the most famous file sharing protocol, which often comes with spyware ) was in 2019 and on his mobile phone. Pegasus took advantage of Whatsapp vulnerabilities to enter.
The revelation was released by an investigation by Citizen Lab, the cybersecurity institute of the University of Toronto, in Canada, which was echoed by the Spanish newspaper El País and the British newspaper The Guardian.
"It is improper in a democracy for the state apparatus to illegally spy on political opponents. The espionage to which I have been subjected violates my right to privacy , the right to secrecy of communications and the right to be able to carry out a political project, "Torrent said, in a statement he made in Catalan and Spanish, without removing himself. the chinstrap.
To make matters worse, Torrent's phone wouldn't have been the only one spied on. The Minister of Digital Policies and Public Administration of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Jordi Puigneró , and the technical director of the Consell per la República - the office that waves the independence flag in Belgium where former President Carles Puigdemont took refuge later appear on the list of the failed declaration of independence of 2017-, Sergi Miquel , the deputy of Esquerra and former candidate for mayor of Barcelona, Ernest Maragall, and the former deputy of the anti-CUP party, Anna Gabriel , who fled to Switzerland after the separatist attempt of 2017.
Jeff Bezos, another victim
Mohammed bin Salman and Jeff Bezos: a Pegasus spy scandal. (AP)
Pegasus' problem is not new. Something similar had happened to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos: he also got on WhatsApp. And he suffered serious extortion problems when he received a link on his phone from who he believed to be Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in 2018.
The consequences for Bezos were dire, as his privacy was exposed and he not only had to go out and explain but face a billionaire divorce that still has to speak in the business world.
While Catalan politics is also processing his divorce, Pegasus could complicate matters for the protagonists involved again.
PJB
