ESPIONAGE WITH PEGASUS: The Most Scandalous Cases Of Espionage With Pegasus

Pedro Sánchez is the first acting head of Spanish government to acknowledge having been spied on by the Israeli Pegasus software, with which Morocco also infiltrated one of the mobile phones of French President Emmanuel Macron.

The Spanish Government has reported this Sunday that the mobile phones of the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez and the Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, were subjected to "illegal and external" wiretapping by the Pegasus program, according to two technical reports from the Cryptologic Center National. It is the first time that espionage with this software of an acting head of government has been confirmed.

Already last summer, an investigation uncovered that Morocco had infected one of the mobile phones of the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, with Pegasus, who however did not confirm the information.

ISRAEL: The Israeli Police Spied On Its Citizens Through Pegasus

It would have been done without judicial permission and also tracked the mobiles of former employees of state corporations and two mayors.

The Pegasus cyber espionage program is once again making headlines in the Israeli media. But this time not because of the claim that another country has used it to spy on activists or journalists instead of the declared purpose (fight against international terrorism and crime) for which it bought the sophisticated system from the Israeli company NSO. 

The reason is that, as revealed by the Israeli newspaper 'Calcalist', the Police have used the software to penetrate the mobile phones of Israeli citizens and extract information from them without permission or judicial supervision.

Pegasus Spying Project || Election Campaign With The Cyber Weapon

The Indian government reacted vigorously, but without a clear denial, to the suspicion that opposition politicians, human rights activists and official officials in the country were investigated with the aid of the Pegasus spying program of the Israeli cyber company NSO Group. An international journalist consortium was able to evaluate a list of potential targets with more than 50,000 telephone numbers that had been leaked to the association Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International. Indian phone numbers are also numerous among the phone numbers that may have been targeted.

Read also: The personal mobiles of the President of the Republic France, Emmanuel Macron

Information Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw called the reports on Pegasus in Parliament "extremely sensational" and "many allegations" in this context "exaggerated". Referring to a statement made by the maker of Pegasus, the Israeli company NSO Group, about the alleged irrelevance of the leaked data, he further stated: "India has a well-established process of lawfully monitoring electronic communications for the purpose of national security is carried out." Vaishnaw did not make a clear statement on the question of whether the Indian state had or is using the spyware.

Pegasus Spying Project || "Shoot me here!"

Pegasus is currently considered by experts to be the most powerful surveillance program for cell phones and is classified as a cyber weapon. NSO has continuously developed its flagship product. Initially, an SMS was sent with a link that the victim had to click. Only then could Pegasus install itself on the device. In the meantime, the owner of a cell phone no longer even notices when the device is attacked by the espionage program.

NSO goes to great lengths to find unknown security gapsin all programs that run on a mobile phone. 860 programmers work for the company. A large part of them are busy finding such gaps in apps and mobile operating systems.

One person with insider knowledge said the average number of targets per customer per year was 112. With 45 customers that would be just over 5,000 targets attacked with Pegasus.

For months, reporters from numerous countries have been researching where, how and against whom the espionage software Pegasus from the Israeli company NSO is used by secret services and police authorities around the world. The starting point was a list of more than 50,000 cell phone numbers from around 50 countries that was leaked to the non-profit organization Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International.

The three letters NSO actually stand for the first names of the three founders Niv, Shalrev and Omri, but in recent years they have become synonymous with surveillance. Because the Israeli company sells a system called Pegasus, with which any mobile phone worldwide can be attacked, taken over and spied on. NSO is only allowed to give Pegasus to state police authorities and secret services, the Israeli government must approve each.

NSO was founded in 2010, and in 2011 the company found Mexico as the first customer for its surveillance tool. Today, NSO claims to have 45 police, military and secret services in 36 countries as customers. These include, for example, Morocco, Kazakhstan and the United Arab Emirates, but also the EU country Hungary and democracy India.

Pegasus Project || French Head Of State "Emmanuel Macron" Was Also The Target Of Pegasus Espionage

Morocco infiltrated one of the personal mobiles of the President of the Republic France, Emmanuel Macron, through the Pegasus program of the Israeli company NSO. Elíseo sources have reacted immediately: "If confirmed, it is obviously very serious . "All the light will be made on these press disclosures" add the same sources in reference to the information revealed by Radio France and a consortium made up of 16 media.

Read more: Pegasus Project || Cyber Weapons

The target phone of the infiltration is one of the personal mobiles of the French head of state . You use it for private communications but sometimes also for business calls. Although it is his personal mobile, it is periodically checked by the French spy services and all his messages are encrypted. According to the Parisian evening newsman, Macron used that phone from 2017 until recent times and it is in fact one of the two iPhones that appear in his official photo.