“We confirm that in 2020 and 2021 we observed and notified the UK government of many suspected cases of Pegasus infection on UK official networks. These include the Prime Minister’s Office (10 Downing Street) and the Office of Foreign and Commonwealth of Nations (now the Office of Foreign Affairs, Commonwealth of Nations and Development), “Citizen Lab Director Ron Deibert said in a statement on Monday.
Citizen Lab is the Canadian Citizen Lab think-tank at the University of Toronto.
Pegasus infections in the Bureau of Foreign Affairs are linked to operators Citizen Lab links to the United Arab Emirates, India, Cyprus and Jordan, Deibert added. As for the Chancellery of the Prime Minister of Great Britain, the attack was supposed to be related to an operator from the United Arab Emirates.
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The press release stressed that the UK Foreign Office has staff in many countries, and suspicions of using Pegasus may have been linked to devices by British officials located abroad and using foreign SIM cards.
Citizen Lab: Spy Operation Against Catalans
Citizen Lab also found, in consultation with Catalan civil society groups, that 65 people had attacks or installation of spyware. In the case of 63 people, it is Pegasus, and in the case of four – Candiru software. The devices of two people may have been attacked or infected with both programs.
“The victims were members of the European Parliament, the presidents of Catalonia, lawmakers, lawyers and members of civil society organizations. In some cases, devices of family members were also infected,” reads the Citizen Lab press release.
Almost all incidents occurred between 2017 and 2020, although a 2015 case was also found.
As emphasized, the perpetration cannot be attributed to anyone in particular, although “strong indicia indicate a connection with the Spanish authorities”.
Pegasus. NSO Group Technologies
Pegasus is advanced spyware developed by the Israeli company NSO Group Technologies. It was founded in 2010 by former members of the Israel Intelligence Corps.
The NSO Group declares that Pegasus was created to “help government agencies investigate and prevent terrorism and crime, to save thousands of lives worldwide.”
“NSO products are only used by government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to fight crime and terrorism,” reports the NSO Group.
The problem is that – as indicated by an organization that cares about human rights, such as Amnesty International – sometimes Pegasus is also used to surveillance, inter alia, journalists, politicians, opponents and human rights defenders.
Think-tank Citizen Lab informed earlier that in Poland, the victims of Pegasus were, among others KO senator Krzysztof Brejza, prosecutor Ewa Wrzosek, patron Roman Giertych and the leader of Agrounia, Michał Kołodziejczak.
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Source: Gazeta
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