Human rights activists, journalists and lawyers around the world have been targeted by authoritarian governments using the technology of an Israeli technology firm.
At least 50,000 issues have been published by major media outlets believed to be in the interest of NSO Group customers.
It is not known where this list came from and how the phones could have been hacked, but the NSO denies any allegations. The company claims its technology is used against criminals and terrorists and is only available to the military, law enforcement agencies and intelligence agencies.
Reports of the use of software known as Pegasus by various states were published by major media around the world such as the Washington Post, the Guardian, Le Monde and 14 others.
Pegasus infects iPhone and Android phones and manages to extract messages, phones, e-mails, record calls or activate microphones and cameras.
The media have managed to identify 1000 people in 50 different countries of the world whose numbers were on the list. They are politicians, heads of state, business executives, activists and members of the Saudi royal family.
Over 180 journalists from Al Jazeera, CNN, New York Times have been eavesdropped on and targeted. Most of the numbers were from Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. / PCWorld Albanian
