The purpose of this blog is to illustrate the countless threats to users of the network, and among them we cannot fail to mention the surveillance through spy software (spyware). In recent years we have learned from the media of numerous cases of espionage against politicians, activists and dissidents, operated through spy software designed to support law enforcement investigations. We are talking about a billionaire market, in which profit and power are the only rules and in which the gray areas take over.
The news of these hours is the use of spyware, developed by the Israeli company NSO Group, for espionage activities against activists, politicians and journalists from all over the world, including the family members of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s family, brutally murdered 2018. The disconcerting reality emerges following an investigation, codenamed Pegasus Project, conducted over 80 journalists from 17 newspapers from 10 countries coordinated by Forbidden Stories and with the technical support of Amnesty International.
Experts focused on a leak of some 50,000 phone numbers of potential surveillance targets by governments and conducted forensic analyzes of their associated devices with the intent of detecting spy software.
The name of the operation derives from the sophisticated spyware Pegasus, produced by the Israeli surveillance company NSO Group and officially reserved for intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies. Unfortunately, several investigations conducted in recent years have shown how this software has ended up in the wrong hands and abused by authoritarian governments and regimes to spy on journalists, opponents and activists. The powerful spy software allows an attacker to spy on all communications of the victims’ phones, to access the files contained in them, and to control their camera and microphone, transforming the devices into perfect spy systems.
Per Agnes Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, the abuse of the Pegasus software is the practice of multiple malicious actors and is not an exception. Surveillance firms profess to be ethical and operating legally while profiting from widespread human rights violations. Callamard calls for an immediate moratorium on the export, sale, transfer and use of surveillance technology. Obviously, NSO Group disagrees and defines the claims contained in the report published following the project as false.
According to the first rumors leaked by the project, at least 11 governments would be customers of the Israeli company, namely Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Togo and United Arab Emirates (UAE). At least 180 journalists in 20 countries were reportedly targeted by governments using NSO spy software between 2016 and June 2021. Most notable are Azerbaijan, Hungary, India and Morocco, countries where the governments in office have operated of repression against the independent media.
To stop the abuses, Amnesty International experts published the technical details that emerged during the investigation in order to spread knowledge about the Pegasus spy network and neutralize its effectiveness. The report includes details of the surveillance infrastructure used for spyware and victim control, experts have identified over 700 Pegasus-related domains. The information shared by the experts can be used by associations of activists, journalists and security experts to detect the presence of spy software on their devices and neutralize it.
However, the disclosure of information relating to spy software will also have an impact on legitimate investigations conducted by the authorities of many countries, operations authorized by institutions for the fight against crime and terrorism. The case must lead us to reflect on the availability of such dangerous systems in the hands of repressive governments, their abuse has been the cause of death and persecution of thousands of innocent people over the years and the silence of the authorities in the face of these abuses is deafening. There is a need for serious and shared regulation on a global scale that punishes abuses in an exemplary manner, but above all that prevents the availability of these software by rogue states and regimes. Authorities should be sure of their suppliers’ conduct and only acquire surveillance software from companies that can prove their systems are not being offered to repressive governments.
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