A report published by the British newspaper, "The Guardian", targeting mobile phones of at least 24 Pakistani government officials earlier this year, using the technology of the Israeli espionage company known as "NSO Group".

Dozens of senior Pakistani defense and intelligence officials were among those exposed to espionage, according to sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, according to sources speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The author adds that, according to these sources, this target was discovered by analyzing the data of the phones of 1,400 people, which were the focus of piracy attempts during two weeks earlier this year.

The report indicates that all suspected spyware exploited a security vulnerability in the WhatsApp application, potentially allowing malware users to access messages and data on targeted phones.

Penetration detection
The author explains that the discovery of the breach last May prompted WhatsApp to file a lawsuit against NSO in October, in which it accused the company of "unauthorized access and misuse" of its services.

The lawsuit also indicated that the targets are "lawyers, journalists, human rights activists, political opponents, diplomats and other senior foreign government officials."

On the other hand, the company "NSO" said it would strongly oppose this claim, and insisted that its technology is used only by law enforcement agencies around the world to catch criminals and terrorists.

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The author stated that this alleged targeting of Pakistani officials provides a first insight into how the NSO spy program, Pegasus, is used to spy on countries. In addition, the details raise new questions about how NSO customers use their own spyware.

Penetration victims
The report included a comment from John Scott Rilton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab group that worked with WhatsApp to identify victims of the alleged breach.

Ryleton said that this kind of spyware is marketed as designed for criminal investigations, but the fact is that it is also used for political surveillance and government spying on other governments.

"The spyware companies are clearly involved in the spread of technological espionage among countries, and there is no government that appears particularly immune, and this increases the patience of governments about this industry all over the world," Writer quoted Rayton as saying.

The report indicates that the Pakistani embassies in London and Washington rejected requests for comment on this matter, as well as WhatsApp.

For their part, representatives of "NSO" declined to comment on the fact whether the company program was used for government espionage.

Earlier reports said that the UAE had used the Israeli "NSO" company to spy on Arab leaders, including the Emir of Qatar.

The company is based in Herzliya, north of Tel Aviv, and employs crews of experts and engineers in the fields of technology, smart warfare software development and digital espionage.