Probe: Journalists, activists among firm’s spyware targets

A file photo of Cengiz, the fiancee of Khashoggi, talking to members of the media in Istanbul. Amnesty International reported that its forensic researchers had determined that NSO Group’s flagship Pegasus spyware was successfully installed on the phone of Cengiz, just four days after Khashoggi was killed. — AP

BOSTON: An investigation by a global media consortium based on leaked targeting data provides further evidence that military-grade malware from Israel-based NSO Group, the world’s most infamous hacker-for-hire outfit, is being used to spy on journalists, human rights activists and political dissidents.

From a list of more than 50,000 cellphone numbers obtained by the Paris-based journalism nonprofit Forbidden Stories and the human rights group Amnesty International and shared with 16 news organisations, journalists were able to identify more than 1,000 individuals in 50 countries who were allegedly selected by NSO clients for potential surveillance.