At least fourteen current leaders or former heads of state, including presidents, prime ministers and a king, would be included in a list of 50.000 phone numbers that would have been compromised by spyware known as Pegasus, marketed by NSO Group Technologies, an Israeli digital surveillance company based near Tel Aviv.
Pegasus is a sophisticated software that can silently self-install itself on target phones without receiving the owners' consent. After installation it provides almost complete control of the phone, this includes the ability to browse the contents of the device, such as photos and videos, record conversations, as well as activate the phone's built-in microphone and camera at any time, without any consent or knowledge of the user.
At least 50.000 Pegasus victims are reported, including senior government officials, successful lawyers, union leaders, human rights activists and investigative journalists in nearly every country around the globe. According to a Washington Post report, the list of subsidiaries contains the names of 14 current or former heads of state. The French would in fact be interested Emmanuel Macron, the South African Cyril Ramaphosa e the Iraqi Barham Salih. The list also includes the telephone devices of three current prime ministers, Saad-Eddine El Othmani of Morocco, Mostafa Madboul of Egypt and Imran Khan of Pakistan and former prime ministers, the French Édouard Philippe, the Belgian Charles Michel, Italian Romano Prodi, the Lebanese Saad Hariri, the Kazakh Bakitzhan Sagintayev, Ugandan Ruhakana Rugunda, the Algerian Noureddine Bedoui and the Yemeni Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr.
The list also includes a telephone number belonging to the king of Morocco, Mohammed VI. Finally, the list allegedly includes several senior officials from international organizations, including the head of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WP report also includes an excerpt from the statement of the NSO Group Technologies: “The company claims to monitor its customers' use of its software and has the power to block any misuse of Pegasus. The company also states that it intends to continue investigating all credible allegations of abuse and to take appropriate action, including shutting down the system for the customer who misuses it.