50,000 phone numbers worldwide on list linked to Israeli spyware
image for illustrative purpose
Israel's NSO Group and its Pegasus malware have been in the headlines since at least 2016, when researchers accused it of helping spy on a dissident in the United Arab Emirates.
An Israeli firm accused of supplying spyware to governments has been linked to a list of 50,000 smartphone numbers, including those of activists, journalists, business executives and politicians around the world, according to reports.
Israel's NSO Group and its Pegasus malware have been in the headlines since at least 2016, when researchers accused it of helping spy on a dissident in the United Arab Emirates.
Sunday's revelations raise privacy and rights concerns and reveal the far-reaching extent to which the private Israeli company's software may be being misused by its clients internationally.
The extent of the use of Pegasus was reported by The Washington Post, the Guardian, Le Monde and other news outlets who collaborated on an investigation into a data leak.
The leak was of a list of more than 50,000 smartphone numbers believed to have been identified as people of interest by clients of NSO since 2016, the media outlets said.
The list reportedly included the number of a Mexican freelance journalist who was murdered at a carwash. His phone was never found, and it was not clear if it had been hacked.
Reports tell that 300 mobile phone numbers used in India -- including those of government ministers, opposition politicians, journalists, scientists and rights activists -- were on the list.
The numbers included those of more than 40 Indian journalists from major publications
The Indian government denied in 2019 that it had used the malware to spy on its citizens after WhatsApp filed a lawsuit in the United States against NSO, accusing it of using the messaging platform to conduct cyber espionage.
