Israel appears to have joined the ranks of ten governments that have used an Israeli company spy program to overshadow its citizens.
Israel the police have used the Pegasus spy program to gather information on at least one political decision-maker, two mayors and a group of citizens who have participated in the former prime minister; Benjamin Netanyahu opposing demonstrations. According to an Israeli business newspaper Calcalist.
According to the newspaper, the police cyber unit has received orders from the police management to use the hacking program developed by NSO. Monitoring of citizens has been carried out without the permission of the court, and the technology has also been used to phish data without special criminal suspicion.
Espioned protesters have taken part in at least the 2020 protests against corona restrictions. He was the first in Finland to talk about it Yle.
Pegasus rose to headlines last summer when a 20-media joint project revealed the program’s widespread use in spying around the world. The program is able to infiltrate and monitor the use of both iOS and Android devices.
According to revelations last summer, the program has been used by at least the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and Hungary.
In December, it was revealed that the Law and Justice Party, which rules Poland, may also have used the Pegasus malware to monitor its political opponents. So now Israel seems to have joined the ranks as a sequel.
Read more: The ruling party in Poland is suspected of spying on the opposition with the Pegasus program
In November, the United States added NSO to its sanctions list due to the company’s harmful cyber operations. At the time, the U.S. Department of Commerce estimated that authoritarian states could use the Pegasus program to spy on and put pressure on those outside their borders as political opponents.
Read also: Extensive report: Governments of at least ten countries have been able to spy on politicians, activists and journalists through the Israeli NSO Group’s hacking program.
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