At least 180 journalists have been potential targets of hacks involving sophisticated spy software in recent years. The Israeli NSO Group had licensed the software to governments to track down terrorists and criminals. But those governments, including EU member state Hungary – had very different intentions. Sixteen media organizations, including the British The Guardian, The Washington Post, Knack and Le Soir, report this on the basis of a joint investigation called the Pegasus project.
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With the so-called Pegasus software from the NSO Group, messages, photos and e-mails from third-party telephones can be read. Conversations are also said to have been recorded and microphones may have even been activated remotely. Dubious regimes would have wanted to eavesdrop on journalists, but also lawyers and activists with the software. The research group was presented with a list containing at least 50,000 telephone numbers of people who had been characterized as ‘important’ by clients of the NSO Group since 2016. It is not possible to determine whether all of these individuals have actually been hacked or whether they have just been attempted.
The organizations had research carried out into a small part of the telephones whose number appeared on the list. 37 smartphones were found to contain traces of the Pegasus software. The Pegasus project is said to be coming with more disclosures in the coming days.
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