Oppositionists and journalists phoned out? – Germany

(BZ). All over the world, human rights activists, lawyers, opposition activists and journalists have apparently been phoned out with espionage software which, according to official reports, is only used to prosecute criminals and terrorists. This is shown by international research in which NDR, WDR, Sddeutsche Zeitung and Zeit were involved. The journalist consortium worked with the organization Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International to evaluate a list of more than 50,000 telephone numbers. These are potential targets selected by customers of the Israeli company NSO Group. NSO is one of the leading manufacturers of commercial spy software. The company sells products to police, intelligence agencies, and armies that can be used to spy on cell phones. NSO’s best-known product is “Pegasus”, a Trojan horse that infects iPhones and Android smartphones without being noticed and can easily monitor phone calls, SMS, e-mails and even encrypted chats.

The list therefore includes cell phone numbers of heads of state and government as well as of high-ranking diplomats. Also included are the numbers of more than 180 journalists, including the editor-in-chief of the Financial Times, reporters from the French Le Monde, from CNN and from editors from Hungary and Azerbaijan.

In a statement written by a lawyer on behalf of NSO, phone number collection could have many legitimate and neat uses that had nothing to do with surveillance.

However, according to the consortium, traces of Pegasus attacks could be found on randomly examined devices; The Trojan apparently remained active on some cell phones until July.

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