Spanish PM, defense minister latest Pegasus spyware victims
- Reference: 1651507209
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/05/02/spain_pegasus_malware/
- Source link:
During a press conference on Monday, Félix Bolaños, the minister for the presidency, [1]told reporters that cellphones of Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez and defense minister Margarita Robles were both infected by NSO's notorious surveillance software last year.
Sánchez's device was breached twice, and Robles' phone was breached once. Bolaños [2]noted that a Spanish judge did not authorize these breaches, meaning "external" groups initiated the espionage.
[3]
"We have no doubt that this is an illicit, unauthorized intervention," Bolaños [4]said at the press conference. "It comes from outside state organisms and it didn't have judicial authorization."
[5]
[6]
Phones of other government officials are under investigation to determine if additional Spanish lawmakers were targeted, he added.
[7]UK Prime Minister, Catalan groups 'targeted by NSO Pegasus spyware'
[8]European officials reportedly targeted by NSO spyware
[9]Whistleblower claims NSO offered 'bags of cash' for access to US phone networks
[10]US lawmakers want to put NSO Group, 3 other spyware makers out of business with fresh severe sanctions
The allegations come just weeks after researchers reported [11]finding Pegasus spyware on dozens of Catalan politicians and members of civil society groups.
In mid-April, Citizen Labs identified at least 63 individuals targeted with Pegasus, four others targeted with Windows surveillance software from [12]Candiru , another Israel-based spyware maker that has [13]also been sanctioned in the US.
The victims included members of the European Parliament, legislators, jurists, members of civil society, and every Catalan president since 2010.
[14]
Catalonia is an autonomous region within Spain where there's a decades-old politically divisive [15]fight for national independence.
When reports surfaced about Pegasus spyware targeting Catalonians, attention turned to Madrid, which has [16]not confirmed or denied that its national intelligence agency had a contract with NSO to use the surveillance software.
The Catalan president has said he suspects Spain's National Intelligence Center is behind the breaches and has [17]called for an investigation into the matter.
[18]
The timing of the spyware being used against Spanish officials is also noteworthy: it allegedly occurred in May and June 2021, at a time when Madrid was involved in a [19]political rift with Morocco over thousands of migrants crossing the border into its territory and domestic tensions over [20]releasing jailed Catalonian separastist.
At the time when Citizen Labs reported the surveillance operation targeting Catalan politicians and activists, it also said it found Pegasus spyware targeting the UK Prime Minister's Office and what was formerly called the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
A week prior, [21]reports surfaced that European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders and at least four EU commission staffers were also targets.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament plenary is scheduled to [22]debate the use of the Pegasus software by EU countries against individuals. ®
Get our [23]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/02/spain-prime-minister-pedro-sanchez-phone-pegasus-spyware
[2] https://www.politico.eu/article/pegasus-spyware-targeted-spanish-pm-pedro-sanchez-defense-minister/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YnBUjKLe6hY2J6SnAnhu-QAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://apnews.com/article/technology-europe-spain-spyware-9ec1d9ad4a32db1b6002841df612606b
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YnBUjKLe6hY2J6SnAnhu-QAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YnBUjKLe6hY2J6SnAnhu-QAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/18/uk_catalan_spyware/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/11/nso_spyware_eu/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/02/whistleblower_nso_group/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/12/15/magnitsky_act_nso_group/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/18/uk_catalan_spyware/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/16/microsoft_candiru_malware/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/03/us_sanctions_spyware/
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YnBUjKLe6hY2J6SnAnhu-QAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29478415
[16] https://www.politico.eu/article/catalan-president-stronger-eu-rules-against-digital-espionage/
[17] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/19/catalan-president-calls-for-investigation-as-spyware-targets-pro-independence-leaders
[18] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YnBUjKLe6hY2J6SnAnhu-QAAAE8&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[19] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/19/spain-and-morocco-clash-after-thousands-of-migrants-enter-ceuta.html#:~:text=Spanish%20police%20tries%20to%20disperse,May%2018%2C%202021%20in%20Fnideq.&text=AFP%20%7C%20Getty%20Images-,A%20diplomatic%20rift%20has%20deepened%20between%20Spain%20and%20Morocco%20after,unimpeded%20by%20the%20Moroccan%20authorities.
[20] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/6/23/pardoned-catalan-separatist-leaders-freed-from-spanish-prisons
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/11/nso_spyware_eu/
[22] https://www.europarl.europa.eu/sedcms/documents/PRIORITY_INFO/504/SYN_PDOJ_May%20I_STR_EN.pdf
[23] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
The Spanish Foreign Ministry can't do that as the Spanish government would open themselves up to questions on the bugging of Catalan politicians phones with NSO.
Do that and he will accuse you of being prejudiced these days, it would be much safer to just have him detained for an investigation into the source of the spyware. I'm not saying that he did it but it would be worth making him prove he didn't. Truth can be trusted, Stupidity can't be.
"It comes from outside state organisms and it didn't have judicial authorization."
The Mossad approved it. What's the issue?
What do you want? An explanation or an apology, or is neither good for you?
Cyber capabilities
I support other countries having better cyber capabilities than Israel / NSO, to counterattack.
Its possible.
Re: Cyber capabilities
I support NSO not existing anymore and its owners, employees, and customers going to prison. I think that would be better as a result.
Who would you counter-attack in this case? Would you attack the owners of NSO? Would you attack Israel's government? Would you attack the Spanish CNI? Unless your answer was only the first option, you risk at best sparking an increasingly large series of attacks and at worst targeting someone who wasn't involved and still getting that series.
more questions than answers
as an IT guy reading an IT article about malware, I really want to know; How did they detect it?
Re: more questions than answers
Me too, but that's probably secret as hell to prevent NSO from dealing with it in their next release.
Oh the irony!
Only last week or so Ms Robles, the defence minister, was rather bizarrely trying to justify the breach of Catalan phones.
Looking at the Spanish press, the dominant theory seems to be that the perpetrators would be the same (or there would be a large overlap) in both cases. There is apparently a Spanish deep state that answers to nobody except the memory of their former dictator Francisco Franco (and chums).
Re: Oh the irony!
From Scott-Railton
[1]https://nitter.net/jsrailton/status/1521152168945987594 .
[1] https://nitter.net/jsrailton/status/1521152168945987594
> Catalonia is an autonomous region within Spain where there's a decades-old politically divisive fight for national independence.
Actually, in this context Catalonia is a nation made up of people of diverse origins who happen to self identify as Catalans. Some of them may also self identify as Spanish, French, Italian, Moroccan, Welsh, Chinese or wherever their roots happen to be, but in any case we're talking about a community of people not a piece of land.
Maybe the best way to handle that would be to invite the Israeli ambassador into the Foreign Ministry for a chat and when he arrives wheel him straight into a press conference for a public bollocking.