Israel appoints task force to assess NSO spyware allegations
Senior inter-ministerial team assembled.
Israel has set up a senior inter-ministerial team to assess growing allegations that spyware sold by an Israeli cyber firm has been abused on a global scale, Israeli sources said.
One source said the team is headed by Israel's National Security Council, which answers to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and has broader areas of expertise than the Defence Ministry, which oversees exports of NSO Group's Pegasus software.
Another source said the National Security Council is not involved and that the assessment is being carried out by senior defence, intelligence and diplomatic officials.
Both sources requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
"This event is beyond the Defence Ministry purview," the first source said, referring to potential diplomatic blowback after prominent media reports this week of suspected abuses of Pegasus in France, Mexico, India, Morocco and Iraq.
On Wednesday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said French President Emmanuel Macron had called for a series of investigations to be carried out into the Pegasus spyware case.
Macron's phone was on a list of potential targets for possible surveillance on behalf of Morocco in the Pegasus case, France's Le Monde newspaper said.
The head of Mexico's financial intelligence unit, Santiago Nieto, said the current government had not signed contracts with companies used to procure Pegasus, but added that the previous Mexican administration had done so as "tactics of control, intimidation and manipulation".
One of the Israeli sources deemed it "doubtful" that new curbs would be placed on Pegasus exports, and said the objective "is to find out what happened, to look into this issue and learn lessons".
Commenting on the development, an NSO spokesperson said: "We welcome any decision made by the government of Israel, and we are convinced that the company’s activities are without flaw."
Addressing a cyber conference on Wednesday, Bennett did not mention the NSO affair.
'Wrong assumptions'
A global investigation published on Sunday by 17 media organisations, led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, said Pegasus had been used in attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists.
NSO has rejected the reporting by the media partners, saying it was "full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories".
Pegasus is intended for use only by government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to fight terrorism and crime, NSO said.
Such purposes are also what guide Israel's export policy, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said in a speech.
But, in a reference to the allegations around Pegasus, he added: "We are currently studying the information published on the matter."
At the conference, Bennett said Israel has memorandums of understanding with dozens of countries about cyber security, which he wants to upgrade into a "global cyber defence shield".
Senior inter-ministerial team assembled.
Israel has set up a senior inter-ministerial team to assess growing allegations that spyware sold by an Israeli cyber firm has been abused on a global scale, Israeli sources said.
One source said the team is headed by Israel's National Security Council, which answers to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and has broader areas of expertise than the Defence Ministry, which oversees exports of NSO Group's Pegasus software.
Another source said the National Security Council is not involved and that the assessment is being carried out by senior defence, intelligence and diplomatic officials.
Both sources requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
"This event is beyond the Defence Ministry purview," the first source said, referring to potential diplomatic blowback after prominent media reports this week of suspected abuses of Pegasus in France, Mexico, India, Morocco and Iraq.
On Wednesday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said French President Emmanuel Macron had called for a series of investigations to be carried out into the Pegasus spyware case.
Macron's phone was on a list of potential targets for possible surveillance on behalf of Morocco in the Pegasus case, France's Le Monde newspaper said.
The head of Mexico's financial intelligence unit, Santiago Nieto, said the current government had not signed contracts with companies used to procure Pegasus, but added that the previous Mexican administration had done so as "tactics of control, intimidation and manipulation".
One of the Israeli sources deemed it "doubtful" that new curbs would be placed on Pegasus exports, and said the objective "is to find out what happened, to look into this issue and learn lessons".
Commenting on the development, an NSO spokesperson said: "We welcome any decision made by the government of Israel, and we are convinced that the company’s activities are without flaw."
Addressing a cyber conference on Wednesday, Bennett did not mention the NSO affair.
'Wrong assumptions'
A global investigation published on Sunday by 17 media organisations, led by the Paris-based non-profit journalism group Forbidden Stories, said Pegasus had been used in attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists.
NSO has rejected the reporting by the media partners, saying it was "full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories".
Pegasus is intended for use only by government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to fight terrorism and crime, NSO said.
Such purposes are also what guide Israel's export policy, Defence Minister Benny Gantz said in a speech.
But, in a reference to the allegations around Pegasus, he added: "We are currently studying the information published on the matter."
At the conference, Bennett said Israel has memorandums of understanding with dozens of countries about cyber security, which he wants to upgrade into a "global cyber defence shield".
DAN WILLIAMS
REUTERS
PUBLISHED JULY 22, 2021
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FILE PHOTO: Israeli cyber firm NSO Group's exhibition stand is seen at "ISDEF 2019", an international defence and homeland security expo, in Tel Aviv, Israel June 4, 2019. REUTERS/Keren Manor STRINGER/REUTERS
An Israeli parliamentary panel may seek changes to defence export policy over reports that software sold by Israel’s NSO Group was used to spy on journalists, officials and rights activists in several countries, a senior lawmaker said on Thursday.
Among suspected targets of NSO’s Pegasus software is French President Emmanuel Macron, who convened his cabinet on Thursday over calls for investigations. Amid mounting EU concern, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters in Berlin that spyware should be denied in countries where there is no judicial oversight.
“We certainly have to look anew at this whole subject of licences granted by DECA,” Ram Ben-Barak, head of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee, told Israel’s Army Radio, referring to the government-run Defence Export Controls Agency.
Israel has appointed an inter-ministerial team to assess reports based on an investigation by 17 media organisations that said Pegasus had been used in attempted or successful hacks of smartphones using malware that enables the extraction of messages, records calls and secretly activates microphones.
NSO has rejected the reporting by the media partners as “full of wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories”. Reuters has not independently verified the reporting.
NSO says it does not know the specific identities of people against whom clients use Pegasus. If it receives a complaint of Pegasus having been misused by a client, NSO can retroactively acquire the target lists and, should the complaint prove true, unilaterally shut down that client’s software, the company says.
Other world leaders among those whose phone numbers the news organisations said were on a list of possible targets include Pakistani Prime Minister Imram Khan and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI.
The Israeli government team “will conduct its checks, and we will be sure to look into the findings and see if we need to fix things here”, said Ben-Barak. A former deputy chief of Mossad, he said proper use of Pegasus had “helped a great many people”.
TARGETING TERRORISTS, CRIMINALS
DECA is within Israel’s Defence Ministry and oversees NSO exports. Both the ministry and the firm have said that Pegasus is meant to be used to track terrorists or criminals only, and that all foreign clients are vetted governments.
But the alleged misuse has stirred questions within Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s cross-partisan coalition, one of whose members, the liberal party Meretz, queried Defence Minister Benny Gantz about NSO exports in a meeting on Thursday.
Gantz “emphasized the importance of upholding human rights within the framework of weapons sales,” a joint statement said.
After Army Radio also aired an interview on Thursday with Szabolcs Panyi, a Hungarian journalist who said Pegasus had been found on his cellphone, NSO chief Shalev Hulio vowed to investigate.
“If he was indeed a target, I can assure you already that we will cut off the systems of whoever took action against him, because it’s intolerable for someone to do something like this,” Hulio told the station.
In keeping with NSO and Defence Ministry refusal to identify client countries, Hulio stopped short of confirming that Hungary had Pegasus. Budapest has not commented on the matter other than to say Hungary’s intelligence-gathering is conducted lawfully.
He said NSO has worked with 45 countries and rejected around 90 others as potential clients. The company has shut down five Pegasus systems for abuse, Hulio said, adding that the software cannot be used against Israeli or U.S. mobile phones.
Amnesty stands by Pegasus research, dismisses 'false rumours'
The purported denial by Amnesty, earlier, sparked responses from BJP leaders
Web Desk July 22, 2021
The Pegasus scandal, which revolved around the use of spyware to snoop on a wide range of public figures, took a curious turn on Thursday morning.
Since the start of the week, multiple media outlets had reported on the possible use of the Pegasus spyware to target journalists, dissidents and politicians, based on research conducted by Amnesty International and French NGO Forbidden Stories.
On Thursday morning, media reports claimed Amnesty International had released a statement, apparently, distancing itself from the Pegasus scandal. According to the reports, the statement said, "Amnesty, and the investigative journalists and media outlets they work with have made clear from the outset in very clear language that this is a list of numbers marked as numbers of interest to NSO customers, meaning they are the kind of people NSO clients might like to spy on. The list contains the kind of people NSO's clients would ordinarily be interested in spying on..." NSO Group is the Israeli company that developed Pegasus.
Multiple media publications reported the statement. Some of the reports appeared to be based on a story in Calcalist, an Israeli business publication.
The purported denial by Amnesty International sparked responses from BJP leaders who attacked critics of the Narendra Modi government. The opposition had alleged the Modi government had used Pegasus to snoop on multiple people in India including journalists, activists and politicians.
Amit Malviya, the head of the BJP's IT operations, tweeted, "The global fishing expedition launched by a syndicated of media organisations put out a malicious report with no evidence. They do not know the source of the list of phone numbers, nor do they know if numbers were spied on. This is nothing but an attempt to undermine democracies."
BJP MP Tejasvi Surya tweeted, "When a low credibility organization like Amnesty itself calls out the lies of The Wire, one can imagine the levels of depravity they have reached. Those low lives can go back to window shopping negative stories on India. India will march on!" The Wire was the only Indian media outlet that had been in the list of publications provided access to the findings of Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International on Pegasus.
However, by midday on Thursday, Amnesty International issued a statement on its website declaring it stood by its research on the Pegasus scandal.
The statement was in response to "false allegations on social media and inaccurate media stories". The statement said, "Amnesty International categorically stands by the findings of the Pegasus Project, and that the data is irrefutably linked to potential targets of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. The false rumours being pushed on social media are intended to distract from the widespread unlawful targeting of journalists, activists and others that the Pegasus Project has revealed."
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor shared a screen-shot of the title of the Amnesty statement and wrote "For all the journalists who told me in Parliament that @amnesty had 'done a u-turn' — never base your stories on @OpIndia_com propaganda!"
ALSO READ
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Modi govt made very big attempt to crush Amnesty International: NGO's chief
The purported denial by Amnesty, earlier, sparked responses from BJP leaders
Web Desk July 22, 2021
The Pegasus scandal, which revolved around the use of spyware to snoop on a wide range of public figures, took a curious turn on Thursday morning.
Since the start of the week, multiple media outlets had reported on the possible use of the Pegasus spyware to target journalists, dissidents and politicians, based on research conducted by Amnesty International and French NGO Forbidden Stories.
On Thursday morning, media reports claimed Amnesty International had released a statement, apparently, distancing itself from the Pegasus scandal. According to the reports, the statement said, "Amnesty, and the investigative journalists and media outlets they work with have made clear from the outset in very clear language that this is a list of numbers marked as numbers of interest to NSO customers, meaning they are the kind of people NSO clients might like to spy on. The list contains the kind of people NSO's clients would ordinarily be interested in spying on..." NSO Group is the Israeli company that developed Pegasus.
Multiple media publications reported the statement. Some of the reports appeared to be based on a story in Calcalist, an Israeli business publication.
The purported denial by Amnesty International sparked responses from BJP leaders who attacked critics of the Narendra Modi government. The opposition had alleged the Modi government had used Pegasus to snoop on multiple people in India including journalists, activists and politicians.
Amit Malviya, the head of the BJP's IT operations, tweeted, "The global fishing expedition launched by a syndicated of media organisations put out a malicious report with no evidence. They do not know the source of the list of phone numbers, nor do they know if numbers were spied on. This is nothing but an attempt to undermine democracies."
BJP MP Tejasvi Surya tweeted, "When a low credibility organization like Amnesty itself calls out the lies of The Wire, one can imagine the levels of depravity they have reached. Those low lives can go back to window shopping negative stories on India. India will march on!" The Wire was the only Indian media outlet that had been in the list of publications provided access to the findings of Forbidden Stories and Amnesty International on Pegasus.
However, by midday on Thursday, Amnesty International issued a statement on its website declaring it stood by its research on the Pegasus scandal.
The statement was in response to "false allegations on social media and inaccurate media stories". The statement said, "Amnesty International categorically stands by the findings of the Pegasus Project, and that the data is irrefutably linked to potential targets of NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware. The false rumours being pushed on social media are intended to distract from the widespread unlawful targeting of journalists, activists and others that the Pegasus Project has revealed."
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor shared a screen-shot of the title of the Amnesty statement and wrote "For all the journalists who told me in Parliament that @amnesty had 'done a u-turn' — never base your stories on @OpIndia_com propaganda!"
ALSO READ
Amnesty International halts India operations due to 'govt witch-hunt'
Activists fighting for release of Bhima Koregaon 11 targeted by spyware: Amnesty
Pakistan: Schools in Lahore to remain shut due to severe smog
CBI registers case against Amnesty International for violation of FCRA
Modi govt made very big attempt to crush Amnesty International: NGO's chief
Will Probe for Credible Proof, Shut Down If Necessary: NSO Group Responds to Pegasus Row
The Pegasus spyware hardly leaves any trace that would allow it to be detected. (Representational image)
NSO Group responded to the fresh row over sale of the spyware to government clients said the list is not a list of targets or potential targets of Pegasus.
LAST UPDATED:JULY 21, 2021,
Israeli surveillance company NSO Group, which sells Pegasus spyware worldwide in a fresh statement on Wednesday said the list of Indian phone numbers reported as potential surveillance targets for hacking by the government is “not related to the NSO group."
The company has grabbed headlines after an investigative report found a list of more 50,000 phone numbers in which more than 1,000 people in 50 countries, including journalists, politicians, government officials, chief executives and human rights activists, were found to be under surveillance by governments around the world.
NSO Group responded to the fresh row over the sale of the spyware to government clients said the list is not a list of targets or potential targets of Pegasus. “The numbers in the list are not related to NSO group," it said.
“Any claim that a name in the list is necessarily related to a Pegasus target or Pegasus potential target is erroneous and false. NSO is a technology company. We do not operate the system, nor do we have access to the data of our customers, yet they are obligated to provide us with such information under investigations." the statement further said.
The company said it will investigate for any “credible proof of misuse of its technologies and will shut down the system where necessary."
Moreover, the company said it would no longer be responding to media inquiries on this matter. “In light of the recent planned and well-orchestrated media campaign lead by Forbidden Stories and pushed by special interest groups, and due to the complete disregard of the facts, NSO is announcing it will no longer be responding to media inquiries on this matter and it will not play along with the vicious and slanderous campaign.
According to the report, several Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, two union ministers, Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee and some 40 journalists, were among those whose phone numbers were listed as potential targets for hacking through the Israeli spyware.
The Indian government has, however, denied the accusations. Union IT and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had dismissed the reports as “baseless" and said that the allegations levelled just ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament were aimed at maligning Indian democracy.
A 32-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor will likely discuss the issue during a meet on July 28. The agenda of the meeting is ‘Citizens’ data security and privacy’, according to the notification issued by Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The panel, which has maximum members from the ruling BJP, has summoned officials from the Ministry of Electronics, Information and Technology and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The issue has emerged as a major issue in the proceedings in Parliament as opposition parties launched a scathing attack on the government. Describing the entire snooping incident as a matter of “national security concern", Tharoor had demanded an explanation from the government.
The Pegasus spyware hardly leaves any trace that would allow it to be detected. (Representational image)
NSO Group responded to the fresh row over sale of the spyware to government clients said the list is not a list of targets or potential targets of Pegasus.
LAST UPDATED:JULY 21, 2021,
Israeli surveillance company NSO Group, which sells Pegasus spyware worldwide in a fresh statement on Wednesday said the list of Indian phone numbers reported as potential surveillance targets for hacking by the government is “not related to the NSO group."
The company has grabbed headlines after an investigative report found a list of more 50,000 phone numbers in which more than 1,000 people in 50 countries, including journalists, politicians, government officials, chief executives and human rights activists, were found to be under surveillance by governments around the world.
NSO Group responded to the fresh row over the sale of the spyware to government clients said the list is not a list of targets or potential targets of Pegasus. “The numbers in the list are not related to NSO group," it said.
“Any claim that a name in the list is necessarily related to a Pegasus target or Pegasus potential target is erroneous and false. NSO is a technology company. We do not operate the system, nor do we have access to the data of our customers, yet they are obligated to provide us with such information under investigations." the statement further said.
The company said it will investigate for any “credible proof of misuse of its technologies and will shut down the system where necessary."
Moreover, the company said it would no longer be responding to media inquiries on this matter. “In light of the recent planned and well-orchestrated media campaign lead by Forbidden Stories and pushed by special interest groups, and due to the complete disregard of the facts, NSO is announcing it will no longer be responding to media inquiries on this matter and it will not play along with the vicious and slanderous campaign.
According to the report, several Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, two union ministers, Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee and some 40 journalists, were among those whose phone numbers were listed as potential targets for hacking through the Israeli spyware.
The Indian government has, however, denied the accusations. Union IT and Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had dismissed the reports as “baseless" and said that the allegations levelled just ahead of the Monsoon session of Parliament were aimed at maligning Indian democracy.
A 32-member Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor will likely discuss the issue during a meet on July 28. The agenda of the meeting is ‘Citizens’ data security and privacy’, according to the notification issued by Lok Sabha Secretariat.
The panel, which has maximum members from the ruling BJP, has summoned officials from the Ministry of Electronics, Information and Technology and the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The issue has emerged as a major issue in the proceedings in Parliament as opposition parties launched a scathing attack on the government. Describing the entire snooping incident as a matter of “national security concern", Tharoor had demanded an explanation from the government.
Saudi Arabia denies Pegasus spyware allegations
Saudi Arabia has dismissed allegations it used Israeli-supplied Pegasus malware to spy on journalists and human rights activists, branding them as 'baseless' and 'untrue'
Saudi Arabia denied the claims [Getty]
Saudi Arabia has dismissed as "baseless" allegations it used Israeli-supplied Pegasus malware to spy on journalists and human rights activists.
"A Saudi official denied the recent allegations reported in media outlets that an entity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia used software to monitor phone calls," the official SPA news agency reported late Wednesday.
"The source added that such allegations are untrue, and that KSA's policies do not condone such practices."
Saudi Arabia was one of a number of governments around the world accused of using Pegasus spyware to monitor the activities of dissidents and other critics, following an investigation by a consortium of media companies, including the Washington Post, the Guardian and France's Le Monde.
Israel's NSO Group and its Pegasus malware -- capable of switching on a phone's camera or microphone and harvesting its data -- have been in the headlines since 2016, when researchers accused it of helping spy on a dissident in the United Arab Emirates.
A giant of Israeli tech with 850 employees, NSO insists its software is only intended for use in fighting terrorism and other crimes, and that any other use is the work of "rogue" operators.
Those claims are rubbished by human rights group Amnesty International.
"NSO's spyware is a weapon of choice for repressive governments seeking to silence journalists, attack activists and crush dissent, placing countless lives in peril," Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement.
The UAE normalised its relations with Israel in a US-brokered deal last year, but regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia still has no formal ties with the Jewish state.
Saudi Arabia has dismissed allegations it used Israeli-supplied Pegasus malware to spy on journalists and human rights activists, branding them as 'baseless' and 'untrue'
Saudi Arabia denied the claims [Getty]
Saudi Arabia has dismissed as "baseless" allegations it used Israeli-supplied Pegasus malware to spy on journalists and human rights activists.
"A Saudi official denied the recent allegations reported in media outlets that an entity in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia used software to monitor phone calls," the official SPA news agency reported late Wednesday.
"The source added that such allegations are untrue, and that KSA's policies do not condone such practices."
Saudi Arabia was one of a number of governments around the world accused of using Pegasus spyware to monitor the activities of dissidents and other critics, following an investigation by a consortium of media companies, including the Washington Post, the Guardian and France's Le Monde.
Israel's NSO Group and its Pegasus malware -- capable of switching on a phone's camera or microphone and harvesting its data -- have been in the headlines since 2016, when researchers accused it of helping spy on a dissident in the United Arab Emirates.
A giant of Israeli tech with 850 employees, NSO insists its software is only intended for use in fighting terrorism and other crimes, and that any other use is the work of "rogue" operators.
Those claims are rubbished by human rights group Amnesty International.
"NSO's spyware is a weapon of choice for repressive governments seeking to silence journalists, attack activists and crush dissent, placing countless lives in peril," Amnesty chief Agnes Callamard said in a statement.
The UAE normalised its relations with Israel in a US-brokered deal last year, but regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia still has no formal ties with the Jewish state.
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