Pegasus: Revelations on this espionage tool monitoring the smartphones of opponents, activists and journalists
Investigators from the NGO Forbidden Stories, with the help of Amnesty International and the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto, as well as that of 17 major international media gathered within the PEGASUS Project, reveal the worrying and large functioningPLEASTER OF THE MOUCHARD for Pegasus smartphones, developed by the Israeli company NSO Group.A tool that is not new since he has already been talked about in 2016 in the Ahmed Mansoor case, militant Emirati of Human Rights, spied on by a "virus" on his iPhone, called Pegasus.
Since then, the use of this digital weapon by espionage agencies has been proven and many times mentioned in "high value targets" cases, whether they are managers and opponents, captains ofIndustry, lawyers, youtubers, athletes, activists or journalists (who are in the majority in the spanned profiles).
If we believe these discoveries, no less than 50,000 telephone numbers would have been pre -selected for listening with Pegasus, on behalf of 55 states in total, including Hungary, Indiaor Morocco.In France, around 1,000 numbers were said to have been targeted, including those of the founder of Mediapart, Edwy Plenel, the editorialist Eric Zemmour, or members of the AFP, the world, the Figaro or the Duck chained.To ensure that these are PEGASUS spying profiles, the Security Lab of Amnesty International has carried out cross -checks and was able to detect in a majority of cases of infiltration.It has proven that some phones have been analyzed repeatedly, reporting on long -term spy.
In recent years, the name Pegasus has been cited in several assassinations, including those of Jamal Khashoggi (Saudi journalist for the Washington Post killed in October 2018 in Turkey) and Cecilio Pineda (Mexican journalist murdered in March 2017).It is highly likely that Pegasus was used in other tragic cases of this type, and led to the arrest of many opponents of the regimes in place.Of course, Nso Group defends himself from having designed a weapon to repress dissident voices, and prefers to argue that the use of his tool is very framed and that he helped the agencies that resort to avoid disasters and saveLives.Be that as it may, it is software that escapes any legal framework and whose use is generally only in the context of classified files.
An extremely sophisticated tool, escaping any legal framework
Username and leaving very few traces on Android or iOS smartphones, PEGASUS can be installed remotely, without access to the terminal, and without even demanding the target the slightest action to be carried out.To operate, it uses safety flaws on systems but not yet documented and/or clogged.
The sale of this extremely powerful tool is done only with the Israel agreement, and only to government agencies.It also does not only give access to messages, and does not only allow telephone listening.This MOCHARD also offers the possibility of accessing countless data from the phone (emails, photos, contacts, location, etc.), as well as information from installed applications, including encrypted messaging.
"The Pegasus project shows how the spy software of NSO Group is a weapon of choice for repressive governments who seek to silence the journalists, to attack activists and to crush the opposition,Putting countless lives in danger, "said Agnès Callamard, secretary general of Amnesty International.For her, this survey highlights the Far West generated by the absence of regulation, which allows the targeting of activists and journalists abusive."The company displays an image of legitimacy, while taking advantage of generalized human rights attacks", she deplores, asking "an immediate moratorium on export, sale, transfer and use of technologies of technologiessurveillance".
In his response formulated following the publication of this survey (published in Extenso by The Guardian), NSO Group denies all these accusations and indicates that relayed information is erroneous hypotheses and non -corroborated theories.
These revelations do not fail to put Google - and more Apple, cantor of security - in annoying posture.But if the publishers of Android and iOS operating systems will possibly correct the flaws exploited by Pegasus, NSO Group will always be able to develop its spy software so as to continue to circumvent the protections of their terminals.The company also plays on legal vagueness and the absence of a legal framework governing the use of such tools to continue marketing in all, with the agreement and under the supervision of the Israeli government.