Smartphones of Rights Activists, Journalists Hacked With Private Israeli Spyware

Spyware developed by an Israeli firm and licensed to governments for tracking terrorists and criminals was also used to hack smartphones of human rights activists, business executives and journalists, according to a global investigation by 17 media partners.

The media outlets reported Sunday that 37 smartphones belonging to journalists, human rights activists, business executives and two women close to murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi were on a list of more than 50,000 numbers that were concentrated in countries that engage in surveillance of their citizens. These countries include clients of the Israeli firm NSO Group, which is a global leader in the largely unregulated private spyware industry. One of the media partners, The Washington Post, said in its article on the spyware that the phone numbers on the list did not identify names, but reporters were able to identify more than 1,000 people in 50 countries on the list, including several Arab royal family members, at least 65 business executives, 85 human rights activists, 189 journalists, and more than 600 politicians and government officials, including several heads of state and prime ministers.