The spy software Pegasus of the Israeli company NSO Group has been widely used for several years to spy on politicians and journalists around the world.
This is stated in an investigation by the French-based NGO Forbidden Stories and a number of media outlets, including The Washington Post, The Guardian, Le Monde and Süddeutsche Zeitung.
According to the NSO Group company, quoted by the Daily Mail, Pegasus spyware is designed to spy on criminals and terrorists, and the right to use it is granted only to "trusted" states and government agencies with special permission from the Israeli government.
According to the authors of the investigation, the surveillance was "massive."
Forbidden Stories managed to get one of the lists of compromised phones - 50 thousand numbers, whose owners have been targeted by NSO Group clients since 2016.
The phone numbers on the list reportedly belonged to businessmen, activists, diplomats and politicians, including several heads of state and prime ministers, as well as members of Arab royal families.
In addition, the list included the numbers of journalists from AFP, CNN, Associated Press, France24, Reuters, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Le Monde, Financial Times, El País and Al Jazeera.
The list included the numbers of two women close to the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashukji, who was killed in 2018, including his wife Hanan Elatr.
According to media reports, their phones could have been hacked shortly before the death of Khashukji.
It is reported that not everyone whose phone numbers were on the released list was being followed.
More details are to be released shortly.
According to the investigation, many of the compromised numbers belong to subscribers in Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Mexico, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
The Daily Mail notes that the NSO Group has previously promised to crack down on abuse of the Pegasus program.
The company called all the allegations exaggerated and unfounded, and also refused to confirm the identity of its clients.
In particular, they denied the connection with the murder of Khashukji.
In turn, The Guardian reported that the Hungarian government allegedly used the Pegasus program to spy on a number of journalists.
A cabinet spokesman denied the allegations: "We are not aware of any alleged data collection referred to in the request."
The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, commenting on the published data, noted that this information has yet to be verified, but stressed that such things are unacceptable.
“From what we have read, and we are still checking this, I can say that if this happened, then it is absolutely unacceptable.
This is contrary to all the rules in the European Union.
We have freedom of the press, freedom of expression.
If this happened, then it is completely unacceptable, ”TASS quotes her as saying.
Ursula von der Leyen
Reuters
© Gonzalo Fuentes / File
The organization "Reporters Without Borders" announced its intention to sue those responsible for spying on journalists.
The organization said it was "shocked by the media consortium's report" that at least 180 journalists in 20 countries were targeted by NSO Group clients.
Reporters Without Borders announces its intention to sue those responsible for this massive surveillance, ”the report said.
According to the head of the organization Christophe Deloire, the NGO decides on the legal action that can be taken in one or more countries against the NSO Group.
He also called on journalists and media to support the organization in this process.
Former US intelligence officer Edward Snowden called the release of espionage data "the story of the year." He also said that the Israeli spy software company should be directly criminally liable for the death and detention of people whose data was compromised with the help of the corresponding program.