The trending news which is going on with the Pegasus Project has also infected South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa.
South African’s Cryil Ramaphosa and Pakistan’s Imran Khan and also former Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and also among 14 world leaders identified as potential targets.
The list contained phone numbers for more than 600 government officials and politicians from 34 countries
“It’s clear that even those at the highest levels of power cannot escape the sinister spread of NSO’s spyware” – Agnes Callamard.
New evidence has revealed that the phone numbers for 14 heads of state, including French President Emmanuel Macron, Pakistan’s Imran Khan and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, as well as hundreds of government officials, were selected as people of interest by clients of spyware company NSO Group.
Amnesty International’s Secretary General, Agnes Callamard, said:
“The unprecedented revelation that the phones of at least fourteen heads of state may have been hacked using NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware should send a chill down the spine of world leaders.
We have long known that activists and journalists are targets of this surreptitious phone-hacking – but it’s clear that even those at the highest levels of power cannot escape the sinister spread of NSO’s spyware.
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NSO Group can no longer hide behind the claim that its spyware is only used to fight crime – it appears that Pegasus is also the spyware of choice for those wanting to snoop on foreign governments.
The damning revelations of the Pegasus Project underscore the urgent need for strong regulation to reign in a wild west surveillance industry. States must implement a global moratorium on the export, sale, transfer and use of surveillance equipment until a robust human rights-compliant regulatory framework is in place.
NSO Group must immediately stop selling its equipment to countries with a track record of putting human right defenders and journalists under unlawful surveillance.
The Israeli government should also not authorise licenses for the export of NSO Group’s cyber surveillance technology if there is a substantial risk it could be used for human rights violations.”
Data source: Amnesty International UK agency and other news agencies