Very sophisticated, this software can access a host of information about the phones of its victims: contacts, messages, geolocation, but also microphone and camera.
Le Monde
The phones of two personalities close to the opposition to the Polish government have been infected by the PEGASUS spyware, marketed by the company NSO Group, revealed Tuesday, December 21 associated Press (AP). The Agency relied on a technical analysis carried out by Citizen Lab, a Laboratory of the University of Toronto in advance of the surveillance industry.
Roman Giertych, a lawyer who defended several members of the opposition, and Ewa Wrzosek, a very critical prosecutor vis-à-vis the government, both saw their infected telephone over the course of the year 2019, in a period close to the legislative elections, won by the nationalist Conservatives of the Law and Justice Party (EADD).
Eighteen hacks in four months
Very sophisticated, this software can access a host of information about the phones of its victims: contacts, messages, geolocation, but also micro and camera. It has several methods of infection, some of which, revealed in recent years by the Citizen Lab, allow you to settle on a telephone without the victim not notice or have to click on a link. In 2019, when the two new Polish victims were targeted, such infection vectors, so-called “zero clicking”, were used in other documented cases this summer In A report by Amnesty International .
The Phone of Roman Giertych has been hacked at least eighteen times in the last four months of 2019, and that of Ewa Wrzosek at least six times between the months of June and July of the same year, according to AP and the Citizen Lab. Very sophisticated and having formidable infection vectors, Pegasus did not, however, at the time, according to the latest report of Amnesty International, of persistence mechanism, that is to say of tools allowing him to resettle Whenever a phone is turned off and turned on again.
The Canadian laboratory failed to identify the Pegasus operator responsible for these infections. This software is marketed only for police and state information and only – promises NSO Group theory – to combat crime and terrorism or support judicial investigations. In practice, innumerable abuses of this mouchard have been documented, and many journalists, human rights activists, politicians and lawyers have been targeted by NSO Group clients around the world.
The elected government
Contact by AP, the Polish Security Services spokesperson, Stanislaw Zaryn, did not wish to confirm or invalidate the revelations that the Polish authorities were clients of NSO Group. For its part, the company stated that it did not use Pegasus directly and that it was not aware of the identity of the people targeted by its customers.
According to the press agency, a Polish Attorney issued, a few hours before the government responding to journalists, an arrest warrant aimed at Roman Giertych as part of a financial investigation.
In Europe, several German authorities, including the federal police, have used Pegasus, and Hungary has been pinned for use this software to spy on, among other things, journalists and lawyers. The US Commerce Department has recently placed NSO Group on Black List, which could eventually prevent Israeli society from providing them with software and equipment from US companies, but also make its affairs difficult within the European Union. Allied United States.