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.
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.
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.
As per the reports, spyware Pegasus may have been used to conduct surveillance on about 300 Indians, including two serving union cabinet ministers, three opposition leaders, government officials, scientists and about 40 journalists, according to Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based journalism nonprofit, and Amnesty International.
