Photograph of the screen of a smartphone displaying the logo of the NSO group, during a company presentation meeting, in Paris, July 21, 2021. THE WORLD AFTER AFP
In July 2021, The world and its partners within the consortium coordinated by Forbidden Stories, with the technical assistance of Amnesty International, revealed the extent of the surveillance permitted by the Pegasus software, sold to various States by the Israeli company NSO Group. After analyzing a list of potential targets for the software, which can be installed completely without the knowledge of a phone owner and suck up all the data, the “Pegasus Project” brought to light multiple abuses.
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Starting with the surveillance of political opponents, human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, in many countries, including France, on behalf of authoritarian regimes and most often outside any legal framework. In addition, NSO’s software has also been used to target diplomats, heads of state or government – including many members of the French government and the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron -, endangering the national security. Finally, this investigation conducted for more than six months showed that the export and sale of these particularly intrusive technologies were not subject to any effective control, or almost, allowing ultra-authoritarian countries to acquire it without difficulty. .
This article from the series “Cases to follow” summarizes the main events that have occurred since the release of the investigation.
Also listen Pegasus: at the heart of a global investigation into spying on phones
Multiple open investigations
In France, around ten journalists and elected officials lodged a complaint, including journalists from Mediapart Edwy Plenel and Lenaïg Bredoux, the former journalist of chained duck Dominique Simonnot, or the deputy Cédric Villani, all targeted on behalf of the Kingdom of Morocco. These investigations are still in the investigation phase.
The European Parliament has also opened an investigation, the aim of which is to examine infections discovered in April on the phones of several senior European officials, including that of the Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders. MEP Sophia In’t Veldt made public the preliminary report of this commission on 8 November. The text, very critical of Hungary and Poland, proposes an immediate moratorium on the use of this software in the Union.
An investigation has also been opened in Algeria, a country in which a large number of political, economic and military leaders have been targeted, again on behalf of the Kingdom of Morocco.
In India, the Supreme Court opened an investigation into the use of Pegasus by the country’s security forces: journalists and political opponents of the ruling party, the Indian People’s Party (Bharatiya Janata Party), were among the list victims in the country. In August, she released her findings in a confidential report that was compiled without the cooperation of the Indian government.
In the United States, the Apple company has, for its part, filed a complaint directly against NSO Group, estimating, according to a press release, that, “In a free society, it is unacceptable to weaponize state spyware against those who seek to make the world a better place”. The American company also undertook to notify several hundred people whose phones it suspected had been infected. Another legal case, launched before the revelations of “Project Pegasus”, by WhatsApp, owned by Meta, is still ongoing – NSO Group has failed to obtain the dismissal of the charges.
For its part, the Kingdom of Morocco filed a complaint for defamation against several media of the “Pegasus Project”, including The worldForbidden Stories, Radio France, Humanity and Amnesty International, technical partner of the project. In France, Morocco was rejected in all its first requests; new complaints aimed in particular The world are still awaiting review by the Paris court.
Political storms in several countries
In India, the surveillance of one of the main opposition leaders, Raul Gandhi, as well as numerous journalists and lawyers, caused a huge scandal.
In Poland, spying on opposition deputies, which the government ended up acknowledging while seeking to justify it, triggered a vast political debate. The Senate is investigating the consequences that this surveillance may have had during the 2019 elections.
In Hungary, the government of Viktor Orban admitted, after strong denials, having bought Pegasus. The use of spyware was added to the multiple criticisms, almost everywhere in Europe, on the authoritarian drift of the Hungarian government.
In Spain, the revelations of “Project Pegasus” have fueled suspicions against the Spanish intelligence services, after the infection of the phones of several personalities linked to the Catalan independence movement. In May, after the publication of a major investigation by the Canadian organization Citizen Lab, the head of the intelligence services admitted that the secret services had used Pegasus to spy on at least eighteen separatists.
The Israeli government, the target of strong criticism from several chancelleries, particularly in Europe, had to tighten, at least symbolically, the conditions for granting licenses authorizing the export of spyware.
International sanctions
In November 2021, NSO Group was blacklisted by the United States Department of Commerce. A sanction usually reserved for companies directly linked to the economy of countries under major sanctions and which prohibits American companies from entering into contracts with NSO Group.
These measures have, it seems, accentuated the economic difficulties of NSO Group, which has changed its CEO twice and is looking for a new buyer: a takeover project by an American group has, in fact, failed due to sanctions. put in place by the Biden administration. Since the revelations of “Project Pegasus”, NSO has been struggling to recruit new customers and the company is heavily in debt.
According to information from “Project Pegasus”, NSO would also have limited the list of countries whose phones can be targeted by its spyware. The company has always claimed to “block” install requests targeting US or Chinese phones and, according to a source familiar with the company’s operations, this blocking would have been extended, at the end of 2021, to the countries of the alliance. “Five Eyes”: Canada, United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. France has requested to be added to this list, without it being known whether its request has been satisfied.
New customer countries, or suspected of being customers, identified
The New York Times revealed, in late 2021, that the FBI had purchased a license to use Pegasus. The American federal police claim never to have used it.
In El Salvador, at least 35 journalists have had their phones infected with the spyware, including many of the editors of the independent online media The lighthouse ; they were notified by a notification sent by Apple. The government of Nayib Bukele claims to be foreign to this vast espionage operation.
The German weekly The time revealed, at the end of 2021, that the German Federal Intelligence Service and the German Federal Police had purchased Pegasus licenses at the beginning of 2020.
The Israeli press also claimed that the Jewish state police had used Pegasus to monitor suspects outside the legal framework.
A dozen cases of spyware infections targeting political dissidents have also been reported, thanks to notifications from Apple, in Thailand.
An award-winning survey
The “Pegasus Project” received the2021 Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Prize, in the Impact category.
He also received the 2021 George-Polk Prize in the United States, in the Technology Journalism category.
Also in 2021, he received the Daphne-Caruana-Galizia Prize for Journalism, awarded by the European Parliament.
