Journalists, politicians and activists monitored by Israeli spyware called Pegasus

The spy software, called Pegasus, developed by the Israeli firm, is said to have been sold to ‘authoritarian governments’ around the world and abused illegally.

According to the research report, journalists, human rights activists, business people, politicians around the world were targeted by the authorities using “hacking software sold by NSO Group”.

The list is said to include more than 50 thousand phone numbers identified by NSO customers as persons of interest. About 500 phone numbers from Turkey are said to be on the list as well, while names close to Cemal KASIKCI were allegedly tracked down by spyware after his murder.

The research, conducted by 16 media outlets including The Guardian, The Washington Post, CNN and Le Monde, shows that NSO’s pirated software Pegasus is widespread and abused.

It was announced that there were at least 10 states believed to be NSO customers. These are Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)