By: IBRAHIM Jaafar
A recent report has revealed that Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been among the countries that have been extensively using the spyware Pegasus to spy on their own people and track human rights advocates.
The report, published by Citizen Lab said, the usage of Pegasus - made by the Tel Aviv-based NSO company - in both countries had significantly increased between August 2016 and August 2018.
NSO Group, an Israel-based “Cyber Warfare” vendor produces and sells Pegasus mobile phone spyware suite. Pegasus customers can infect targets using Androids and iPhones by sending them specially crafted exploit links.
Pegasus is a modular malware, also known as a "one-click system", whereby the victim has to press a link sent to them through phishing. After scanning the target’s device, it installs the necessary modules to read the user’s messages and mail, listen to calls, capture screenshots, log pressed keys, exfiltrate browser history, contacts, and so on and so forth. Basically, it can spy on every aspect of the target’s life. The spyware has been around for at least three years, when it was first detailed in a report over the summer of 2016.
The New York Times reported on August 31 that the NSO Group and affiliates had actively participated in cyber attacks on individuals sought by the UAE using the controversial Pegasus spyware to turn their smart phones into surveillance devices.
NSO's latest Pegasus 3 system no longer requires clicking of links, with only the number of the SIM card needed to hack into the phone.
Once a phone is hacked, the speaker and camera can be used for recording conversations, while even encoded apps such as WhatsApp can be monitored.They can even surreptitiously use the phone’s microphones and cameras to view and eavesdrop on their targets.
“Our findings paint a bleak picture of the human rights risks of NSO’s global proliferation. At least six countries with significant Pegasus operations have previously been linked to abusive use of spyware to target civil society,” the Citizen Lab said in its report, refusing to name all the countries. The report also showed that spyware produced by the company had witnessed "significant expansion" of usage in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.
Victims of the NSO technology spyware includes satirist Ghanem Almasarir, human rights activist; Yahya Assiri who lives in London, and activist Omar Abdulaziz, who lives in exile in Canada. All three men had been in contact with Khashoggi.
Saudi dissident based abroad, Yahya Assiri, one of the targets of the spyware, told the Middle East Eye recently that "governments that use these technologies have something to be scared of, and have no respect for human rights.”
Assiri also described the move as a reflection of the lies by the governments that use Israeli spy tools to monitor their citizens.
“They publicly claim their animosity toward Israel, but secretly use its products to spy on activists whom it then accuses of treason,” he said.
Whistleblower Edward Snowden, former US intelligence contractor believes that Jamal Khashoggi was also a victim of this spyware hacking. "They are the worst of the worst," Snowden said of NSO.
As the Arabic saying goes: "He who interferes with what doesn't concerns him finds what doesn't please him". Is romancing of these major Arab countries with Isreal agaisnt her citizens not like "sticking one's nose where it doesn't belong?