SINGAPORE: On Jul 18, major news outlets worldwide published an investigation into a massive data leak that showed rights activists, journalists and politicians around the world were targeted by authoritarian governments using hacking software sold by an Israeli surveillance company.
The company, NSO Group, produces Pegasus, a type of malware that infects iPhones and Android devices to enable operators of the tool to extract messages, photos and emails, record calls and secretly activate microphones.
The data leak contained more than 50,000 phone numbers suspected to be infected with Pegasus. They belong to hundreds of business executives, religious figures, academics, NGO employees, union officials and government officials, including ministers, presidents and prime ministers.
Notable individuals in this list include French President Emmanuel Macron, Financial Times editor Roula Khalaf and people close to slain Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.
Prior to this, a Canada-based research group found in 2018 that some of the infected phones could be in Singapore.
However, the presence of a number in the recent leaked data does not mean there was an attempt to infect the phone. Without forensic examination, it is impossible to say whether the phones were attempted to be or successfully hacked using Pegasus.
The list of numbers was first obtained by Amnesty International, a human rights watchdog, and Forbidden Stories, a group that focuses on free speech. They then shared the list with a consortium comprising journalists from 17 prominent news outlets.
Read More:-https://www.channelnewsasia.com/singapore/pegasus-spyware-singapore-leak-hack-israel-nso-2185236
Source Credit:https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/