Due to a WhatsApp vulnerability: Tracking software was implanted in the cell phone of a Catalan official Roger Torrent • After the exposure took effect: "The government of Madrid had no legal right to commit such an act"

• Roger Torrent // Photo: AFP

The mobile device of one of the top lethal politicians, pro-independence leftist Roger Torrent, has installed advanced spyware that is commonly used by governments and exploits a WhatsApp vulnerability, according to a study published in the British Guardian and Spanish El País.

The investigation revealed that this is not spyware of simple hackers or fraud of the usual kind, but a sophisticated, quiet, and extremely rare spyware. This information was revealed in a US lawsuit on the subject and it turned out that whoever implanted the software in the politician's smartphone could actually have access to all the emails, calls, photos, WhatsApp messages and other personal information that may be sensitive.

Worse, the software turned the smartphone into an active spy device that could record and in some cases even photograph the entire environment of the politician at any given moment. This kind of information is of great value, especially when it comes to such a senior politician who supports a controversial and fierce position between the central government of Spain and the province of Catalonia that has been striving for independence or expanding its autonomy for many years.

Torrent, itself, received the information about its cell phone intrusion from the security and research company that works with WhatsApp itself and that works to thwart the spyware options of such sophisticated software through software vulnerabilities. It should be noted the senior politician was not particularly surprised and only blamed the Spanish government as responsible for the break-in noting "the government in Madrid had no legal right to commit such an act".

In response to accusations made by the President of the Parliament of Catalonia and after it became clear that the account of a Catalan Member of Parliament who was Catalonia's Foreign Minister and member on behalf of the EU Ernest Margal, had also been breached, the Spanish government denied any connection to the breach.