Journalists under surveillance
At least 180 journalists have been selected for surveillance with the Pegasus spyware, a technology sold by the Israeli company NSO Group to governments around the world.
The spyware can be installed remotely on a smartphone without requiring any action from its owner. Once installed, it allows clients to take complete control of the device. NSO Group asserts that it “only collects data from the mobile devices of specific individuals, suspected to be involved in serious crime and terror.”
Yet, an unprecedented leak of more than 50,000 phone numbers selected since 2016 — which Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International had access to — suggests that the spyware is used much more carelessly than advertised. Phone numbers belonging to journalists were identified in 21 countries. The Forbidden Stories consortium, with the technical support of Amnesty International’s Security Lab, was able to confirm some of those infections through a forensic analysis of the phones, when it was possible to contact the journalists securely. Many investigated crucial public interest matters and held their government accountable through their reporting.
The following list is not comprehensive and includes both cases in which the infection of the phone could be confirmed and cases where the phone could not be analyzed.
Cecilio Pineda
Mexico
Ferdinand Ayité
Togo
Roula Khalaf
United Kingdom
Bradley Hope
United Kingdom
Khadija Ismayilova
Azerbaijan
Taoufik Bouachrine
Morocco
Siddharth Varadarajan
India
Edwy Plenel
France
Szabolcs Panyi
Hungary
Yuriria Sierra
Mexico
Eric Bagiruwubusa
Rwanda
Alejandro Patrón
Mexico
Carmen Aristegui
Mexico
Souleimane Raissouni
Morocco
Vijaita Singh
India
Paranjoy Guha Thakurta
India
Sevinc Vaqifqizi
Azerbaijan
Aboubakr Jamai
Morocco
Lenaïg Bredoux
France
Rafael Rodriguez Castañeda
Mexico
MK Venu
India
Turan Kışlakçı
Turkey
Jaspal Heran
India
Rosa Moussaoui
France
Maria Moukrim
Morocco
Jorge Carrasco
Mexico
Swati Chaturvedi
India
Alejandro Sicairos
Mexico
Smita Sharma
India
Hicham Mansouri
Morocco
Alejandra Xanic Von Betrab
Mexico
Ignacio Cembrero
Spain
Sushant Singh
India
Ali Amar
Morocco
Marcela Turati
Mexico
Carlos Ketohou
Togo
Ricardo Raphael
Mexico
Iftikhar Gilani
India
Jasur Sumerinli
Azerbaijan
Rohini Singh
India
David Dercsenyi
Hungary
Luis Hernández Navarro
Mexico
Alvaro Delgado
Mexico
Omar Brouksy
Morocco
The Pegasus Project
An exclusive leak of 50,000 records of phone numbers shows how NSO Group's spyware has been widely misused to spy on journalists, human rights defenders, as well as lawyers and heads of state.
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Media organizations in 11 countries joined forces to investigate this massive cybersurveillance scandal and publish dozens of stories in 8 languages.
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