Project Pegasus revelations

information leak and investigation revealing alleged cyberweapons deployment against civilians and democratic dissidents

The Pegasus Project is an international investigative journalism effort to reveal spying abuses by many governments on journalists, opposition politicians, activists, business people and others using the private NSO Group's Pegasus spyware.

In 2020, a list of over 50,000 phone numbers believed to belong to people known as "people of interest" by clients of the Israeli cyberarms firm NSO Group was leaked to Amnesty International and Forbidden Stories.

People spied on change

This information was passed along to 17 media organisations under the umbrella name "The Pegasus Project". Over several months, over 80 journalists from The Guardian (UK), Le Monde and Radio France (France), Die Zeit, Süddeutsche Zeitung, WDR and NDR (Germany), The Washington Post and Frontline (United States),[1] Haaretz (Israel), Aristegui Noticias and Proceso (Mexico), Knack and Le Soir (Belgium), The Wire (India), Daraj (Syria),[2] Direkt36 (Hungary), and OCCRP investigated the spying abuses.

Some of the journalists and activists that were spied on were Jamal Khashoggi (who was assassinated in 2018), Loujain al-Hathloul and Stan Swamy (convicted Jesuit priest for terrorism).[3][4]

References change

  1. "About The Pegasus Project". Forbidden Stories. Retrieved 2021-07-19.
  2. "Israel Helped Over Ten Countries Tap Over 50,000 Phones". Daraj. 18 July 2021. Archived from the original on 19 July 2021. Retrieved 20 July 2021.
  3. Bouvart, Arthur; Priest, Dana (2021-07-18). "Affaire Khashoggi : deux femmes proches du journaliste assassiné ont été surveillées par Pegasus". Le Monde (in French). Retrieved 2021-07-19.
  4. Walker, Shaun; Kirchgaessner, Stephanie; Lakhani, Nina; Safi, Michael (2021-07-19). "Pegasus project: spyware leak suggests lawyers and activists at risk across globe". The Guardian. Retrieved 2021-07-19.