Security News > 2022 > July > Pegasus Spyware Used to Hack Devices of Pro-Democracy Activists in Thailand

Thai activists involved in the country's pro-democracy protests have had their smartphones infected with the infamous Pegasus government-sponsored spyware.

The attacks entailed the use of two zero-click exploits - KISMET and FORCEDENTRY - to compromise the victims' phones and deploy Pegasus, spyware that's capable of intercepting calls and texts as well as amassing other information stored in a phone.

The earliest cases of infections using the KISMET exploit occurred in October 2020 against out-of-date iPhone, with the FORCEDENTRY exploit deployed against Thai iPhones starting in February 2021 running iOS versions 14.4, 14.6, and 14.7.1.

Citizen Lab noted that there is currently at least one Pegasus customer active in Thailand, although it's not immediately known if it's connected to a specific government agency.

NSO has long claimed that its spyware is used by government clients to tackle serious crime, but evidence gathered so far has pointed to repeated instances of abuse of the surveillance tool to snoop on members of the civil society.

"We can now officially add Thailand to the growing list of countries where people peacefully calling for change, expressing an opinion, or discussing government policies may trigger invasive surveillance with a profound toll on an individual's freedom of expression, privacy, and sense of security," said Amnesty International's Etienne Maynier.

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