Today, Monday, international and human rights organizations, media, the European Union and governments denounced what had been revealed about reports of espionage operations worldwide targeting activists and journalists through the Pegasus program developed by the Israeli company NSO.
When inserted into a smartphone, this software allows access to messages, photos, contacts and even listen to the wearer's calls.
On Sunday, a group of 17 international media outlets, including the French newspapers "Le Monde", the British "The Guardian" and the American "Washington Post", published a report on this program that increased the suspicions against the Israeli company.
The report is based on a list obtained by Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International of 50,000 phone numbers believed to be from people considered by NSO to be of interest since 2016.
The list includes the numbers of at least 180 journalists, 600 politicians, 85 human rights activists and 65 businessmen, according to the analysis conducted by the group, which identified many numbers in several countries.
The investigation indicated that the governments of at least 10 countries are among the clients of the Israeli company (NSO), most notably Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, as well as Morocco, Azerbaijan, Rwanda, as well as Saudi Arabia, Hungary, India and the UAE.
Pegasus is used to eavesdrop on human rights activists, monitor email messages, take pictures and record conversations, after their phones are hacked.
NSO was founded in 2010, employs about 500 employees, and is headquartered in Tel Aviv.
international rejection
"We are not talking here about a few rogue states, but about the widespread use of spyware by at least 20 countries," Amnesty International Secretary General Agnes Callamard told BBC radio.
"It's a major attack on critical journalism," she said.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, called on Monday for better "regulation" of surveillance technologies after the Pegasus scandal.
Bachelet said in a statement that what was revealed by the media about the spyware program developed by an Israeli company "confirms the urgent need to better regulate the process of selling, transferring and using 'surveillance technologies' and ensuring strict monitoring of them."
"Without a regulatory framework that respects human rights, there are simply too many dangers that these tools will be misused to intimidate critics and silence opponents," she added.
"Governments must immediately stop using these surveillance technologies to violate human rights, and they must take concrete measures to protect against these intrusions of private life by regulating the distribution, use and export of these surveillance technologies," Bachelet added.
It also noted that the information that revealed that several countries had used the Pegasus program to spy on journalists or human rights defenders "is of grave concern and seems to confirm the worst fears about the possibility of altering the use of these technologies to illegally undermine human rights."
European Commission
For her part, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed her refusal to use the Israeli Pegasus program to spy on activists and journalists.
The European official said that the matter had not yet been confirmed, and that it was still allegations.
"But if this actually happened, it is unacceptable and cannot be accepted," she added.
She stressed the importance of press freedom for the European Union, without providing further information.
Moroccan Hungarian exile
On Monday, the government of Viktor Orban in Hungary denied the Hungarian intelligence's use of the "Pegasus" program to spy on personalities, as well as any cooperation in this regard with Israel, according to several international media outlets.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a press conference that "the director general (of intelligence) told me that there was no cooperation with Israeli intelligence" in this regard.
For its part, the Moroccan government condemned on Monday what it described as "false allegations" about its security services' use of the "Pegasus" program to spy on journalists' phones, indicating its willingness to provide "realistic, scientific" evidence.
The government said, in a statement, that it "rejects these false allegations, and denounces them in whole and in detail," stressing that "it has never acquired information software to penetrate communication devices, nor has public authorities carried out such actions."
Rabat challenged the media that published this investigation to provide "realistic, scientific evidence that can be examined by professional, impartial and independent counter-expertise that proves the validity of what has been claimed."
Many journalists, politicians and human rights defenders had their phones hacked (Al-Jazeera)
She indicated that she reserves the right to "arrange the results it deems appropriate," considering that what was published "intends to harm the country's image" and "its legal status and its higher interests."
For its part, the Mediapart news site reported in Monday's article that "the mobile phone numbers of Linyag Prideaux and Edui Blenell (co-founder of the site) were among a list of 10,000 targeted by Moroccan intelligence using spyware provided by the Israeli company."
He announced that he had filed a complaint with the Public Prosecution Office in Paris.
The French government spokesman confirmed Monday morning that "there will certainly be investigations and clarifications will be requested," without giving further details.
Israeli move
In Israel, where the company that developed the spyware is based, the liberal Meretz party, a partner in the ruling coalition, said Monday it would ask the Defense Ministry about exports of Israeli spyware that media reports have linked to the hacking of the phones of journalists, officials and rights activists around the world.
Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, head of the Meretz party, told reporters that he would meet Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Thursday to discuss exports from the Defense Ministry-authorized group "NSO".
There was no immediate comment from the Defense Ministry, which issues licenses for these exports.
Al-Jazeera journalists were those whose phones were hacked through the Israeli Pegasus program (French)
The list of journalists whose phones were hacked includes the Mexican journalist Cecilio Pineda Berto, who was killed a few weeks after his name appeared, in addition to the phone numbers of journalists from media organizations around the world, including "The Wall Street Journal", "AFP", "CNN" and "New York" The Times, Al Jazeera, France 24, Mediapart, The Associated Press, Le Monde, Bloomberg, The Economist, Reuters and The Guardian.
The names of other personalities on the list, which includes a head of state and two heads of government, will be revealed in the coming days.
Journalists from Project Pegasus met some of the owners of these numbers and obtained 67 phones for analysis at an Amnesty International laboratory.
And it was confirmed that the Israeli group's spyware hacked or attempted to hack 37 devices, including 10 phones, in India, according to reports issued on Sunday.
Also included in the list are two figures belonging to two women close to the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in his country's consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
And the “WhatsApp” application had filed a complaint in 2019 against “NSO,” accusing it of providing technology to hack smartphones owned by hundreds of journalists, human rights defenders and other members of civil society, including citizens of various countries, including India.
And "NSO" is not the only Israeli company suspected of providing foreign governments with spyware without regard to human rights, and that it obtained the green light from the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
The "Devilstung" program, developed by the "Syto Tech Ltd" Foundation, was used against about 100 politicians, dissidents, journalists and activists, as confirmed Thursday by experts at Microsoft and Citizen Lab.