Can Hermes do more than Pegasus? Experts spoke

in the article that the Hermes software was purchased when Bogdan Święczkowski, one of Zbigniew Ziobro’s closest collaborators, was the National Prosecutor. Hermes would be the “Pegasus bis” in the prosecutor’s office. “Contrary to the daily’s suggestions, the software referred to in the text was not used for operational work. It operates on the principle of a very advanced Internet search engine,” said the Deputy Prosecutor General, Michał Ostrowski, one of the prosecutors from the National Prosecutor’s Office, who does not recognize Adam Bodnar’s decision to dismissal of Dariusz Barski from his previous position as national prosecutor.

Hermes works like Pegasus? Experts speak out

Hermes was taken under the microscope by Zaufana Trzecia Strona, one of the largest Polish websites devoted to security and privacy issues. Adam Haertle, an IT security specialist, writes that, to his knowledge, Hermes was actually purchased by the National Prosecutor’s Office and “is actually an analytical tool.” How it works? Haertle emphasizes that it is a tool for automating the processes of collecting information from open sources, the so-called OSINT. “If we provide it with the data of the object of our interest, it will look through information available publicly on the Internet (search engines, social networking sites, forums, specialized websites) and download everything it finds about a given name, surname and nickname. It will save the collected data in for further analysis, because he will not draw conclusions from them on his own. Interestingly, there are many free tools with similar capabilities” – . And he concludes: “Does he hack into phones? No. Can he download data from the phone? No. Does he have anything to do with Pegasus? Neither. Oh no, sorry, Hermes also had wings…” The expert wonders why the National Prosecutor’s Office decided to spend millions on Hermes, since “there are many free tools with similar capabilities.”

“I have a question. Why do we call data analysis software ‘spying’ or ‘surveillance’? It does not help build digital competences among Poles. Words have specific meanings,” commented Łukasz Olejnik, an independent researcher and cybersecurity consultant, on the X platform and privacy, who runs the blog prywatnik.pl.

The Pegasus Commission wants to deal with Hermes

Meanwhile, on Monday, after the publication of the “Gazeta Wyborcza” article, information appeared that the investigative committee for Pegasus would also look into the Hermes software. The vice-chairman of the commission, Przemysław Wipler from Konfederacja, said that he already had information that showed that Pegasus was not the only software used by Polish institutions for surveillance. – Moreover, I had information that the Hermes system was leading when NSO, the supplier of the Pegasus software from Israel, Poland and Hungary, did not extend the license to continue eavesdropping on citizens, due to reservations that this system could be used in democratic country to illegally surveil politicians – said MP Przemysław Wipler.

The chairwoman of the commission, Magdalena Sroka from PSL-Trzecia Droga, explained that under the resolution on the basis of which the commission operates, its members will examine all surveillance systems that were used by Polish institutions. – Turning to the National Prosecutor’s Office, but also to the Ministry of Justice, we asked in the first evidence applications for all information regarding the Pegasus system, but not only that, because it also operates similarly. We are waiting for such information from the relevant ministries and services, said MP Magdalena Sroka. The chairwoman of the committee added that she had previously heard and had information about a system called Hermes.

Pegasus – how does the software work?

Pegasus is an extremely advanced spy program that can be used to track and eavesdrop on terrorists and the most dangerous criminals. It was created by the Israeli company NSO Group Technologies, which was founded in 2010 by former members of the Israel Intelligence Corps. The software has almost unlimited possibilities and is very difficult to detect. “There are many ways to infect someone’s phone with Pegasus. This can be done by sending a message with a link, an e-mail with a forged document or a push notification to the victim’s phone. Carelessly clicking on a link, file or notification may result in infecting the phone and then gaining access to it. to it by services using Pegasus” – in December last year. Pegasus exploits vulnerabilities in the victim’s phone software and tries to gain access to all possible modules and data of the smartphone. The software “gets access to all information stored in the device’s memory (photos, videos, call history, text messages, etc.), phone status, and allows you to turn on the microphone or camera at any time, eavesdrop on a conversation, track the location, or transmit live images and sounds.” 24 hours a day” – these are just some of its possibilities.