and targeted human rights defenders, journalists, political dissidents, diplomats and government officials.
NSO, a company that manufactures, distributes and operates surveillance technology, used WhatsApp servers located in the United States and elsewhere to send spyware to about 1,400 smartphones and devices in April and May, according to the WhatsApp complaint. The targets included"at least 100 human rights defenders, journalists and other members of civil society across the world," according to Cathcart.
"The sole purpose of NSO is to provide technology to licensed government intelligence and law enforcement agencies to help them fight terrorism and serious crime. Our technology is not designed or licensed for use against human rights activists and journalists," the company added. The investigation revealed that attackers installed NSO's flagship spyware, known as Pegasus, on smartphones by making a WhatsApp call to victims, according to WhatsApp and Citizen Lab. The victims didn't even have to answer the call for their phones to be infected.
WhatsApp chief Cathcart wrote that the attacks were"highly sophisticated," but the attackers' attempts to cover their tracks weren't entirely successful. Although NSO's technology is marketed as a tool to assist governments in lawful investigations into crime and terrorism, Citizen Lab said it"has identified dozens of cases where journalists, human rights activists and defenders, lawyers, international investigators, political opposition groups, and other members of civil society have been targeted with Pegasus."
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