Pegasus spyware: politicians, business leaders, activists and journalists targeted

The case reacted to the European Commission. According to an investigation carried out by a consortium of seventeen international media, spy software called Pegasus, developed by the Israeli company NSO Group, would have made it possible to spy on the numbers of at least 180 journalists, 600 politicians, 85 human rights activists and 65 business leaders.

A case "completely unacceptable" if it is proven, said Monday the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. "Freedom of the press is a central value of the European Union," said Ms. Von der Leyen, who presented in the Czech capital a plan of 7 billion euros to help the country to face the health crisis.

NSO denies the accusations

The work carried out by these media, including the French daily Le Monde, the British The Guardian and the American The Washington Post, is based on a list obtained by the non-profit platform based in France Forbidden Stories, which coordinated this vast investigation, and the NGO Amnesty International. It has, they say, 50,000 phone numbers selected by NSO customers since 2016 for potential surveillance.

Among those targeted is the number of Mexican journalist Cecilio Pineda Birto – shot a few weeks after he appeared on this document. According to the Washington Post, the software was also used against phones belonging to two women close to Jamal Khashoggi, a Post contributor who was assassinated at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.

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The telephone numbers of foreign correspondents from several media including the Wall Street Journal, CNN, France 24, Mediapart, El Pais and AFP were also found.

The spy software, introduced in a smartphone, makes it possible to extract messages, photos and emails from the telephone, but also to record telephone conversations and activate the microphone of the device.

NSO, regularly accused of playing into the hands of authoritarian regimes, ensures that its software is intended only for government intelligence services and law enforcement agencies to help them fight crime and terrorism. The Israeli company also rejected in a press release the content of the investigation and the accusations, denouncing "erroneous assumptions and unsubstantiated theories".

(with agencies)

2 mins

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