The latest shocker in the Pegasus spyware case has pointed to President Cyril Ramaphosa as the target of a massive data leak after his phone number was found amongst 14 world leaders’ listed as “people of interest” by NSO Group.
The NSO Group, an Israeli spyware firm, targeted Ramaphosa along with French President Emmanuel Macron and Pakistan’s Imran Khan, whose phone numbers were on a list of potential surveillance targets in the Pegasus spyware case.
As reported by The Guardian, Ramaphosa was “selected” by Rwanda back in 2019, however, “this does not mean he was subject to an attempted or successful hack”. In addition, NSO insists the database has “no relevance”.
Spyware made and licensed by NSO had been used in both attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials, human rights activists, diplomats, military chiefs and senior politicians from 34 countries.
The Pegasus Project is a group consisting of more than 80 journalists from 17 media organisations in 10 countries which collaborated with Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based media non-profit, and Amnesty International.
Amnesty International provides the group with technical support by means of “cutting-edge forensic tests on mobile phones to identify traces of the spyware”.
Human rights activist Agnès Callamard explained: “These revelations blow apart any claims by NSO that such attacks are rare and down to rogue use of their technology. While the company claims its spyware is only used for legitimate criminal and terror investigations, it’s clear its technology facilitates systemic abuse. They paint a picture of legitimacy, while profiting from widespread human rights violations.”
Following backlash after Forbidden Stories’ report went viral, the NSO Group in a statement “firmly denies [the investigators’] false claims, wrong assumptions and uncorroborated theories”.
According to Amnesty International, the amount of journalists targeted in the spyware campaign “vividly illustrates how Pegasus is used as a tool to intimidate critical media”.
“It is about controlling public narrative, resisting scrutiny, and suppressing any dissenting voice,” Callamard said. The following cases lays bare the real-world harm caused to targets of the spyware campaign and data leak.
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