Iran Press/ Europe: Traces of NSO’s Pegasus spyware were found on the mobile phones of at least five current French cabinet ministers, the investigative website Mediapart has reported, citing multiple anonymous sources and a confidential intelligence dossier.
The allegation comes two months after the Pegasus Project, a media consortium, revealed that the phone numbers of top French officials, including French President Emmanuel Macron and most of his 20-strong cabinet, appeared in a leaked database at the heart of the investigative project.
There is no firm evidence that the phones of the five cabinet members were successfully hacked, but the Mediapart allegations indicate that the devices were targeted with the powerful spyware known as Pegasus, which is made by NSO Group.
When it is successfully deployed by the Israeli company’s government clients, Pegasus allows its users to monitor conversations, text messages, photos, and location and can turn phones into remotely operated listening devices.
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Israeli spyware used to spy on journalists, public figures
