Security News > 2021 > July > New Leak Reveals Abuse of Pegasus Spyware to Target Journalists Globally

A sweeping probe into a data leak of more than 50,000 phone numbers has revealed an extensive misuse of Israeli company NSO Group's Pegasus "Military-grade spyware" to facilitate human rights violations by surveilling heads of state, activists, journalists, and lawyers around the world.

"The Pegasus Project lays bare how NSO's spyware is a weapon of choice for repressive governments seeking to silence journalists, attack activists and crush dissent, placing countless lives in peril," Amnesty International's Secretary-General, Agnès Callamard, said.

"These revelations blow apart any claims by NSO that such attacks are rare and down to rogue use of their technology. While the company claims its spyware is only used for legitimate criminal and terror investigations, it's clear its technology facilitates systemic abuse. They paint a picture of legitimacy, while profiting from widespread human rights violations," Callamard added.

The list of phone numbers, while not including the names, is said to contain hundreds of business executives, religious figures, academics, NGO employees, union officials, and government officials, with the probe uncovering NSO Group clients in at least 11 countries, including Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Togo, and the U.A.E. The investigation has so far identified 180 journalists and more than 600 politicians and government officials, spanning across more than 50 countries, even as the timeline of the attacks spread over a seven-year period from 2014 up to as recently as July 2021.

This is far from the first time NSO Group's phone-penetrating spy software has been used to target human rights activists and journalists.

Update: Amazon on Monday said it has cut off web hosting infrastructure and accounts linked to Israeli surveillance vendor NSO Group following a forensic investigation of the attacks that determined that a phone infected with NSO's Pegasus malware sent information "To a service fronted by Amazon CloudFront, suggesting NSO Group has switched to using AWS services in recent months."

News URL

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheHackersNews/~3/WCLNQvg-w9Y/new-leak-reveals-abuse-of-pegasus.html