Pegasus: Israeli government involvement in question
From left to right, current Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Benett, ex-President Reuven Rivlin, Defense Minister Benny Ganz and former Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, June 2, 2021 in Jerusalem.
AFP - ABIR SULTAN
Text by: RFI Follow
7 mins
Day after day, revelation after revelation, the list of 50,000 telephone numbers that could have been spied on by the Pegasus software of the Israeli group NSO looks more and more like a directory of personalities on the planet.
Leaders, entrepreneurs, journalists, civil society activists ... all likely to be spied on via their smartphone without them realizing it.
Among them, the French, Iraqi or South African presidents and prime ministers in office.
Pegasus is software marketed by the Israeli company NSO, a company with close ties to the Israeli government, whose involvement in these espionage cases is now in question.
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With
Guilhem Delteil
, from the International service of RFI
Since Sunday evening and the first revelations of the investigative consortium, the Israeli government has been discreet in the face of the scandal. No press release from the Prime Minister's office, no comment on social networks. A reaction to the outrage displayed after Ben and Jerry's decision to
no longer market its ice cream in Israeli settlements in the West Bank
.
However, every NSO contract with foreign clients receives the approval of the Israeli authorities.
The export of this spyware is subject to approval by the Defense Export Control Agency.
Israel approves the export only "
for legal uses, to prevent and investigate crimes and counter terrorism
", defends a spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, without however announcing the opening of an investigation after these revelations.
"
Where Netanyahu went, NSO followed
"
The government might even have played the representative of NSO and its flagship product. "
Where Netanyahu went, NSO followed
", headlines this Wednesday the Israeli daily
Haaretz,
member of the investigative consortium, making the link between the travels of the former prime minister and certain contracts concluded by the company .
The scandal also questions the use of the information obtained by Pegasus.
Did the Israeli government have access to it?
Both the company and the Ministry of Defense deny it.
“
NSO is a private company.
[...] It is not a back door for the Israeli intelligence services
”, assures the lawyer of NSO to the British newspaper
The Guardian.
But it would be "
crazy to think that NSO would not share sensitive information of national security with the government of Israel
", judges for its part a former agent of the American intelligence in the columns of
Washington Post.
Is it still possible to have total digital security?
►
Analysis with Aude Gery
of the multidisciplinary research and training center dedicated to the study of the strategic and geopolitical issues of the digital revolution.
Aude Gery, co-author of "Information wars in the digital age" (PUF)
Mikaël Ponge
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Cybercriminality
Pegasus
Israel
Benjamin Netanyahu