Pegasus: Journalists critical of Putin in the EU attacked with spyware
For years, exiled journalists and activists from Russia and Belarus have been attacked with spyware. Their iPhones could have protected them.
(Image: T. Schneider/Shutterstock.com)
More than half a dozen representatives of Russian and Belarusian civil society in exile in the European Union have been the target of cyberattacks using the Pegasus spyware from the Israeli manufacturer NSO. This was revealed by an investigation conducted by the civil rights organization Access Now with the Canadian Citizen Lab. Based on the discovery that the exiled Russian journalist Galina Timchenko was attacked with Pegasus, attempted and largely successful attacks against seven other people were discovered. Almost all of them live in the Baltic States, two of them in the Polish capital Warsaw.
iPhones can be protected
According to Citizen Lab, most of those affected - two of whom remain anonymous – made critical remarks about Russia's government following the extensive Russian invasion of Ukraine. As a result, they were exposed to enormous pressure from Russian and Belarusian authorities. Although they are safer in exile, the discovery of the spyware attacks underlines how fleeing abroad can increase certain digital risks. They are almost exclusively dependent on third-party technology for their communications, Citizen Lab explains. The discovered attacks also raise the question whether the countries in which those affected have found refuge are sufficiently fulfilling their obligations to combat human rights violations.
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There are few details in the communications about the technical background to the discovered attacks. They took place between 2020 and 2023, but the Citizen Lab states that there are links between the attacks on five of the individuals that indicate that a single actor is responsible. In addition, the majority – if not exclusively – iPhones were again compromised. The experts therefore recommend activating lockdown mode on Apple devices. Citizen Lab has not yet found a single case in which a cell phone protected in this way was successfully infected when this option was selected. There is no comparable protection under Android.
The NSO Group's Pegasus spyware has been used for years in attempted and successful hacks of smartphones belonging to journalists, government officials and human rights activists on a global scale. Attacks using it have been discovered in a wide variety of countries, sometimes with extensive political consequences. Poland's new government, for example, allegedly has evidence that a "long list" of people were spied on under the previous government. The US government is taking increasingly decisive action against the manufacturers, most recently announcing that it will restrict the freedom of travel of people who develop such spyware and earn money from it.
(mho)
