Spain The Government denounces that the cell phones of Pedro Sánchez and Margarita Robles have been intervened by Pegasus in an "external attack"
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It is not the first time in this legislature that the phones of this Government have been affected by "external attacks".
Already in August 2020, the
National Intelligence Center
, also through its technological units, detected
hacks
of ministers.
Specifically, the phones of the then Minister of Justice
Juan Carlos Campo
and of a minister (the CNI shielded her identity) were victims of attacks, of
hacks
from abroad.
Already at that time it was pointed out that the attackers came from outside of
Spain
.
And it slipped that origin could be in
Russia
or
China
, although experts always clarify that it is very difficult to determine precisely.
At that time, from the
CNI
it was reported that the rest of the telephone numbers of members of the Executive were going to be analyzed by the center's technological specialists in case there had been more interference.
At the time, that attack had nothing to do with the
Pegasus
program .
In fact, the specialists pointed out that it was a "failure of the computer security culture" by the spies.
As the sources consulted by this newspaper recall, the mobile phones used by ministers and senior officials are "high security" and have powerful control systems to avoid precisely this type of situation.
"A Massive Attack"
At that time, several senior officials received suspicious messages on their phones, "it was a massive attack."
According to sources close to the case, those affected received malicious emails.
If you accept them, you open the door wide for the attacker to access, and even control your mobile device.
If you accept that email, you leave all your contacts and stored messages in the hands of attackers.
The system with which mobile security is broken is called
phishing
and consists of the attacker sending messages using different methods, from instant communication systems to emails, using identities that are known to the victim to activate the message .
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