Was NSO used to spy on a female journalist in the Dominican Republic? - Walla! technology

A mobile phone with an NSO logo (Photo: Flash 90, Yonatan Zindel)

The investigation of Amnesty International's laboratories discovered evidence that the cell phone of a prominent journalist in the Dominican Republic was infected with the Israeli spy software Pegasus, around July 20, 2020. Additional evidence of the infection was found in September 2021. The international human rights organization shared its findings with the Canadian "Citizen Love" organization for peer review, which confirmed the conclusions with their own independent review.

The journalist, Nuria Feira told Amnesty that she was working on a sensitive and high-profile investigation at the time.

She investigated reports of corruption related to government officials and associates of the former president, who months later were indicted on charges of accepting bribes and other crimes.

Fiera first received confirmation that her personal device had been compromised by Pegasus when Amnesty International's security lab notified her.

In November 2021, she received a message from Apple, which went out to users who suspected their device was compromised by Pegasus and Quadri software.

Fiera claims she never received an official notice or court order from authorities in the Dominican Republic confirming she was under surveillance, or why.

Amnesty notes that such tactics are particularly harmful to female journalists, who also suffer personal attacks based on their gender, including accusations of violating conservative social, sexual or moral norms.

"You have to work on yourself really new to not become neurotic, because you constantly feel that someone has information about you. It's like being trapped in quicksand. It affects your perception of freedom, how free you are to speak. Sometimes you don't even know how they want hurt you - directly or through those close to you, and then you feel responsible for it, which is even worse," said Nuria.

In video: The offices of the Israeli cyber company NSO (Photo: Reuters)

NSO response

Following the appeal "Wala!"

In response, the company spokeswoman sent the following message: "NSO cannot provide information about its clients. Amnesty refused to provide NSO with the report in question.

Amnesty issued a number of reports in recent years that were found to be questionable and inaccurate. Accordingly, NSO asked Amnesty Correspondence to immediately provide it with any information related to the issue, in order to open an investigation. NSO implements a due diligence program to mediate the risk of misuse of our technology. The company does not operate the technology, and has no knowledge of how it is used by customers. The company investigates any credible accusation of abuse."

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