New Delhi: The leaked database allegedly revealed potential targets of illegal cyber surveillance using Pegasus hacking software, including 180 editors, investigative journalists and editors of the Financial Times among other journalists from across the world.
According to the publication Guardian, these journalists were likely candidates for surveillance by government clients of the surveillance firm NSO Group.
According to the report, one of the high profile journalists is Raula Khalaf, who last year became the first female editor in the history of the newspaper, was one of the possible targets during 2018. The name Khalaf is in the leaked list of mobile phone numbers selected for probable. Monitored by clients of NSO, an Israeli firm that manufactures spyware and sells it to governments.
Leaks suggest that Khalaf’s phone was chosen as a possible target by the UAE. At that time Khalaf was the deputy editor of the FT. A spokesperson for the Financial Times said: “Freedom of the press is important, and any unlawful state interference or surveillance of journalists is unacceptable.”
The company’s flagship product Pegasus is a spyware that can be used to listen in on conversations.
This spyware has been called “the most sophisticated” phone hacking tool. It has been used many times in the past as well. The surprising thing is that after the phone is hacked with this spyware, the user does not even know. It can hack your device and get information about all apps including WhatsApp.
Who are the other potential journalists?
Other journalists whose numbers appear include local freelancers, such as Mexican journalist Cecilio Pineda Birto, who was killed by gun-armed assailants a month after his phone was picked up. It included several award-winning investigative journalists, editors and executives from major media organizations.
In addition to the UAE, a detailed analysis of the data indicates that the governments of Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda and Saudi Arabia all selected journalists as potential surveillance targets, the report said. is.
Khadija Ismailova, an award-winning Azerbaijani investigative journalist, was also confirmed by Technical Analysis to have been hacked with Pegasus in 2019.
Other journalists who were selected by NSO clients as potential candidates for surveillance work for some of the most prestigious media organizations in the world. These include The Wall Street Journal, CNN, The New York Times, Al Jazeera, France 24, Radio Free Europe, Mediapart, El Pais, Associated Press, Le Monde, Bloomberg, Agence France-Presse, The Economist, Reuters and Voice of America. , The Guardian said.
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